Two roadside bombs kill at least 14 in Afghanistan

August 13, 2009

According to Afghan officials, fourteen civilians have been killed in two bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan, as militants step up attacks ahead of next week's presidential elections.

An official said the first explosion blew up a vehicle in the Gereshk district of the Helmand Province on Wednesday, killing eleven members of one family. Only one girl survived, he said.

The second bomb killed three young boys, in the neighbouring Kandahar province, after a roadside bomb detonated while they were playing.

"All the three children are boys between six and 11 years of age," provincial police chief Mohammad Shah Khan said to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Both attacks have been blamed on the Taliban, who have pledged to disrupt the presidential elections, which are to be held on August 20.