At least 11 people were killed, including three children, after a minivan was hit by a roadside bomb in northwest Afghanistan, according to an Afghan official.
ADVERTISEMENTAt least 11 people were killed, including three children, after a minivan was hit by a roadside bomb in northwest Afghanistan, according to an official.
Badghis provincial Gov. Hesamuddin Shams said that rescuers were still searching for bodies in the valley.
The provincial government has said the Taliban is responsible for placing the bomb but no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The war-ravaged country is littered with bombs and land mines often planted by insurgents.
The UN mission in Afghanistan has said that in the first three months of this year, 1,783 civilians had been killed or wounded in Afghanistan, an increase of 29% over the same period last year.
The violence comes as U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and a delegation from the National Security Council and Department of Defence travelled to the region to start a new series of talks between the Taliban and the government.
They were to meet in Kabul and Doha in Qatar to urge the sides to reach a political settlement.
Negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan representatives began last September in Doha and continued earlier this year.
But the Taliban announced on April 13 that it would not take part in any conference intended to decide the future of Afghanistan until all foreign troops were gone.
President Joe Biden had announced a day earlier that all U.S. troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11.
In northern Faryab province, provincial officials said on Sunday the district of Qaisar had fallen to Taliban fighters after a weeks-long fight between the two sides.
Also on Sunday, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Kabul targeted a civilian car wounding three people.