10 kids among 20 killed in Afghan violence

June 03, 2013 17:19

A suicide bomber targeting an American patrol outside a busy market in eastern Afghanistan killed 13 people today, including 10 schoolchildren who were walking nearby and two international service members, officials said.

Gen Zelmia Oryakhail, provincial police chief of Paktia province, said the bomber was on a motorcycle and detonated his explosives at midday outside the market in Samkani district as American forces passed.

He said a local school had just let pupils out for lunch. The US military coalition in Afghanistan confirmed that two of its service members died in the explosion. It did not confirm their nationalities.

Ten schoolchildren and one Afghan police officer were killed, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said. It did not say the ages of the children.

In recent weeks, Taliban insurgents have unleashed a wave of suicide bombers to hit government targets and international agencies in the country, and militants have been attacking police checkpoints in several provinces in a major test for the security forces of President Hamid Karzai's government.

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