Ghazni police say the children, five girls and four boys, were aged from four to ten years old
\nKABUL
\nNine children were killed in a blast in southeastern Afghanistan that was caused by a landmine laid during the country\u2019s decades of conflict, a provincial official said Monday.
\nThe mine went off as a group of young boys and girls were playing with it in the Geru district of Ghazni province on Sunday, said the provincial head of the information and culture department, Hamidullah Nisar.
\n\u201cAn unexploded mine left over from the time of the Russian invasion went off when they were playing with it,\u201d Nisar told AFP.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, it killed nine children.\u201d
\nGhazni police said the children \u2014 five girls and four boys \u2014 were aged from four to ten years old.
\nSwathes of Afghanistan are littered with unexploded mines, grenades and mortars from decades of conflict, spanning from the Soviet invasion in 1979, the civil war that followed, and the 20-year Taliban insurgency against foreign-backed governments.
\nViolence has reduced dramatically since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, ending their insurgency.
\nUnexploded ordnance and mines, however, still claim lives regularly, with the International Committee of the Red Cross saying children are the main victims.
\nAlso on Sunday, another child died and five other people were wounded when unexploded ordnance went off in Herat province, local police said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghazni police say the children, five girls and four boys, were aged from four to ten years old KABUL Nine children were killed in a blast in southeastern Afghanistan that was caused by a landmine laid during the country\u2019s decades of conflict, a provincial official said Monday. The mine went off as a group of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-397834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n