Roadside bomb kills 4 children in Zabul

A roadside bomb has killed four small children of a single family in the southern Zabul province of Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Saturday.

Wazir Mohammad Jawadi, Shah Joy district governor, said another child from the same family was wounded in the blast, which took place late Friday.

At the same time, a police official said that Afghan security forces repelled an insurgent attack in Ghazi Abad district in eastern Kunar province, killing at least 29 militants.

Gen. Abdul Habib Sayedkhaili, the provincial police chief, said that a police officer was killed in the fighting, which erupted when hundreds of insurgents tried to overrun Ghazi Abad district headquarters near the border with Pakistan. He said forces had prior intelligence about the attack and were prepared to respond it.

“Insurgents were defeated after five hours of intense gun battles by the Afghan security forces,” he said, adding that more than 40 militants were wounded in the battle.

“If we had not had the support of the local people it would have been very difficult to repel the enemy’s attack,” he said.