Unexploded mortar detonates in Afghanistan, kills 8 children

At least eight children in Afghanistan were killed and several others sustained injuries when unexploded ordnance detonated in the country’s northern province of Faryab.

The eight children, including four siblings, were killed in Faryab’s Shirin Tagab district after a mortar shell they were playing with exploded, witnesses said on Saturday. Another six children were also wounded in the blast.

Karim Yuresh, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, said all of the children had been aged between five and 12 and were playing when the bomb went off, adding that two of the wounded children — who lost limbs — were in critical condition.

“They found an unexploded mortar shell and brought it near our house,” a relative of one of the victims told AFP. “They didn’t know what it was and were trying to open it when it suddenly exploded.”

Local officials said the mortar had been fired by the Taliban, which last week captured Koh-e-Sayad, the village where the children lived.

The war-wracked country suffers from scores of deadly attacks by the Taliban militant group almost across the country.

The Taliban’s former, five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end when the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror; but, ever since, the group has been involved in widespread militancy, killing thousands of civilians as well as Afghan security forces and displacing tens of thousands of people across the country.

Many parts of the country remain plagued by  militancy despite the presence of US-led foreign forces.

PressTV-About 60 Afghan forces killed in clashes with Taliban

Scores of Afghan security forces and Taliban militants are killed in clashes in northern Afghanistan.

Since late last year, Daesh, which has already lost all its urban strongholds in Syria and Iraq, has also taken advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan and established a foothold in the country’s eastern and northern regions.

Thousands of kids killed in Afghan war

The latest fatalities add to the ever-growing civilian death toll in the long-running war in Afghanistan, following the US-led invasion in 2001.

Civilians, including children, have borne the brunt of the 17-year conflict, with reports indicating that children are often killed or maimed by explosive devices left over from the war.

United Nations (UN) figures show that 3,179 children were killed or wounded in 2017, accounting for almost one-third of the total civilian casualties for the year.

Improvised explosive devices, such as remotely detonated or pressure-plate bombs, killed or wounded 545 children last year, according to the UN. Unexploded ordnance also claimed the lives of 142 children and wounded 376 in the same period.

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