13 civilians killed in Afghanistan roadside bombing

Up to 13 civilians were killed while five others were wounded Monday evening when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a police spokesman said.

A minibus set off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Maiwand district at 5 p.m., killing 13 civilians and injuring five others on the bus, police spokesman Zia Durranni told Xinhua.

He said a woman and a child were among the wounded.

There was also a suicide car bombing targeting a NATO-led coalition forces' convoy in the same area earlier Monday, but caused no casualties.

The Taliban insurgent group has largely been using home-made IEDs to launch suicide attacks and roadside bombings against Afghan troops and the NATO-led forces but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.

On Saturday, more than seven million Afghans, out of 12 million eligible voters, cast their vote to elect a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai for the next five years in the first democratic transfer of power through polling in the country's history.

More than 2,900 civilians were killed and nearly 5,700 wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in the war-torn country last year, according to official figures.