Seven civilians, five of them women, were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province today, the provincial governor's spokesman said.
Three passengers were also wounded in the blast in the province's Khakriz district, said spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi.
Roadside bombs are by far the deadliest weapon used by insurgents against government and Nato-led forces, and civilians are also often killed by devices left in the road.
In a separate incident in neighbouring Uruzgan province, a suicide bomber at the gate of an Afghan army base wounded five Afghan soldiers, but none were killed, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat said.
The past year has been the deadliest of the eight-year-old war for civilians, Afghan security forces and Western troops alike, with most of the violence occuring in southern provinces like Kandahar and Uruzgan.
US President Barack Obama announced this month an extra 30,000 troops would join nearly 110,000 US and Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, in an effort to turn the tide against the militants, who have tightened their grip on many parts of the country.
Reuters