Bomb kills 10 Afghans heading for wedding

A roadside bomb killed 10 civilians, including women and a child, heading for a wedding party in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said. "Ten civilians, including four women and a child were killed in a roadside bomb attack as they were going to attend a wedding party in Musa Qala district of Helmand province," the provincial governor's spokesman Ahmad Zeerak told AFP. 7 children were wounded in the blast, which police blamed on Taliban insurgents. The attack took the day's toll in the Afghan war to 18, with a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killing three policemen in a pre-dawn attack and five Afghan troops dying in a roadside bombing. The blasts came as Afghan forces take increasing responsibility for the fight against Taliban insurgents as US-led NATO combat troops prepare to pull out by the end of 2014. The suicide attack came in Kandahar city in the south of the country while the soldiers died in Laghman province in the east. "Around 5:00 am, a suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated his explosives at a police checkpost, leaving three Afghan policemen killed and two others wounded," the provincial governor's spokesman, Javed Faisal, told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but similar attacks have been claimed by Taliban Islamists fighting to bring down the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. The roadside bomb hit a pick-up truck carrying Afghan army soldiers, killing five and wounding one in Mehtarlam, the Laghman provincial capital, Sarhadi Zwak, the provincial governor's spokesman, said. On October 19 a huge roadside bomb ripped through a minibus carrying guests to a wedding party in northern Afghanistan's Balkh province, mostly women and children. Just days later, a suicide bomber killed more than 40 people, including police and civilians, in a mosque in Maimana, provincial capital of Faryab, also in the north.