Blast heard in Afghan capital; another in east kills 10 girls

A blast was heard in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, a Reuters witness said.    

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. One television station said it took place on a street where several bases for foreign troops are located.            

Earlier, an exploding bomb or landmine killed ten young girls as they were gathering firewood outside their village in eastern Afghanistan on Monday morning, an official said.       

Police said they believed that the device was an unexploded mine that had been laid years ago and was triggered somehow as the girls walked through the open field. At least one other old mine was found nearby, provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussian Mashreqiwal said. He also noted that the blast did not occur next to a road or any obvious target.       

The girls who died ranged in age from 9 to 13 years old and all came from different families in Dawlatzai village, said Mohammad Seddiq, the government administrator Nangarhar province's Chaperhar district, which includes the village. Two more girls were seriously wounded and are in critical condition at a hospital, Seddiq said. He spoke to The Associated Press by phone from the site of the blast.


AP/REUTERS