Two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan's most violent province killed five people heading to a wedding and five policemen.
The first bomb struck a family heading to a wedding in a tractor today in volatile Helmand province's Garmsir district, where a new force of US Marines has been battling Taliban forces since launching a major operation last month.
Earlier today, Afghanistan's Interior and Defence ministries had put the toll from the wedding attack at 21 dead. But officials lowered the toll to five after investigating further, a Helmand police spokesman said.
"Because of the remoteness of the area we did not have accurate information in the morning. The toll of five killed and five wounded is precise information and that comes from an investigation by our team," he said.
The second bomb exploded near a police vehicle in Naad Ali district, also in Helmand, killing five policemen and injuring three.
Violence, already at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, has increased in the last weeks of campaigning for an August 20th presidential election, which militants vow to disrupt.
Thousands of US Marines and British troops last month simultaneously launched the war's two biggest operations in separate parts of Helmand to seize territory from Taliban fighters ahead of the election.
The ongoing operations are meant to expand the government's control of the volatile south ahead of the election, part of President Barack Obama's new strategy to defeat militants, which has seen him send tens of thousands of extra US troops.