Afghanistan: 12 people were killed, 25 injured in bomb attack in Herat

(Agencies): At least twelve people were killed in a bomb attack in western Afghanistan on Friday, said a local hospital.

According to a statement by Herat Hospital, 25 people, including some in critical condition, were injured in the attack that hit the Jibril area of Herat city.

“The death toll of the blast in PD 12 of Herat city has risen to 12, with 25 wounded, provincial health officials said, saying the explosives were buried in a sports field and triggered as young people were playing,” Afghan TOLOnews reported.

A group of children and young men who came to a field to play were hit when two bombs went off in quick succession.

Taliban official in the province, Naeemulhaq Haqqni who is chief of the Herat Information and Culture Department, said the Taliban found and defused two other bombs also planted in the same playing field.

The field is used for traditional Afghan games including mud wrestling and a horse-mounted game called Buzkashi.

Eyewitnesses claimed that 10 people were killed in the attack.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The Jibril area is home to mostly Shia Muslims.

Meanwhile, earlier on Friday, a group of children was killed in the southern province of Helmand when they came across an unexploded mortar shell that suddenly detonated.

The children, who were aged between 3- and 12-years-old, discovered the shell in the district of Marja and were playing with it when it went off, a Taliban media officer told the Associated Press.

Two other children were wounded in the blast and are being treated in a local hospital.

[Map of Afghanistan by Tooby/Public Domain]

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