TIRIN KOT (Dispatches) – A total of 15 Taliban militants including a group commander are killed as their explosive device goes off prematurely in the southern Uruzgan province, says an army statement.
"A Taliban local commander, Mullah Musafir, along with his fighters were going to plant mine on a road in Khas Uruzgan district of the province early this morning, but the device exploded accidentally killing 15 insurgents including Mullah Musafir on the spot," the statement on Sunday asserted.
The security personnel have also discovered and defused 18 mines from the area, the statement further said.
Taliban outfit has yet to make comments on the report.
The southern Uruzgan province with Tirin Kot as its capital 370 km southwest of Kabul has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency over the past several months.
A day earlier, nine Afghan children were killed when a mine exploded as they walked to school, police said, the latest victims in a growing toll of civilian casualties in the war.
The blast happened in the northeastern province of Takhar. Saturday is a school day in Afghanistan.
"This area is under Taliban control and since security forces launched attacks to clear it, the Taliban have planted anti-personnel mines," Khalil Asir, a spokesman for the provincial police, told Reuters.
"Unfortunately, today, one of those mines exploded and killed nine primary school students," he said.
The children, aged nine to 12, included four from what Asir described as a "Taliban family".
A spokesman for the Taliban, who are fighting to oust foreign troops and defeat the U.S.-backed government, was not immediately available for comment.
Civilian casualties have been increasing to record levels this year, despite efforts by the United States and Taliban insurgents to reach a deal.
A record 4,313 civilians were injured or killed between July and September, a 42 percent increase from the same period last year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said last month.
The toll included more than 1,000 deaths, the bloodiest period since the mission began collecting figures in 2009. It brought the number of civilian casualties for the first nine months of the year to more than 8,000.