Family among 11 dead in Afghanistan bomb blast

Eleven people, most of them members of one family, have been killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, officials said today.

An Interior Ministry statement said the device went off in Badghis province’s Qadis district as a police vehicle was driving past last night.

The vehicle was part of a three-vehicle police convoy which had just stopped to pick up a family who needed a lift into town.

The ministry said nine of the 11 killed were from one family, including six children and two women.

Two policemen were also killed, while three other people - a 10-year-old child and two policemen – were wounded.

The ministry condemned what it described as an “un-Islamic” act which killed the civilians during the second day of a major Islamic holiday.