DHAKA: A roadside bomb killed at least 19 Afghan civilians including nine children in a southern province, while Taliban fighters in the north captured a key district on the frontline of the battle for Kunduz city.

Officials said on Sunday, reports The Times of India.

Violence has spiralled in Afghanistan since the departure of most foreign forces at the end of last year. Insurgents are pushing to take territory from the NATO-trained Afghan security forces more than 13 years after the US-led military intervention that toppled the Taliban from power.

In the southern province of Helmand, police official Haji Janan Aqa said 19 people, including nine children and eight women, were killed on Saturday night. He said five people were wounded.

He said the villagers had recently fled fighting in Marjah district and were apparently trying to go home.

‘They wanted to return to their village, but their van hit a roadside bomb planted by Taliban,’ Aqa said.

A media reporter said all of the dead children he saw at the scene were under the age of five.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Taliban typically deny targeting civilians, although their tactic of planting roadside bombs has been harshly criticized by the United Nations.

BDST: 1507 HRS, JUN 21, 2015
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