A remote-controlled bomb killed at least seven Afghan civilians and wounded 14 in front of a government building in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday (February 23), a government official said.

The blast was in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province. NATO-led troops are in the 10th day of an operation to flush the Taliban out of nearby Marjah district, where the militants had set up their last big stronghold in Helmand.

"It was around 10:30 when the b Read more

A remote-controlled bomb killed at least seven Afghan civilians and wounded 14 in front of a government building in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday (February 23), a government official said.

The blast was in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province. NATO-led troops are in the 10th day of an operation to flush the Taliban out of nearby Marjah district, where the militants had set up their last big stronghold in Helmand.

"It was around 10:30 when the blast took place, around 15 people have been martyred or wounded in this blast," said Malik Khan, a shopkeeper at the blast scene.

"We were driving out of our compound when the blast took place, the explosives were placed on a bicycle, the bicycle turned into pieces, all the people who were martyred or wounded are civilians," said a police offices.

Violence across Afghanistan last year hit its highest levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. The Islamist militants have made a comeback and are resisting efforts by President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government to impose control.

In Zabul province, also in the south, a roadside bomb hit a convoy of Romanian soldiers serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Tuesday, said Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Five people were evacuated from the site, Rasoulyar said, but it was not clear if anyone had been killed.

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