Six killed in Afghanistan roadside bombing

Six civilians were killed and two others wounded when a bomb planted by the roadside blew up a vehicle in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Monday, a provincial government spokesman said.

"A Toyota station wagon ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) along a road in Pandullah locality of Achin district. The explosion killed six people on the spot," Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told Xinhua news agency.

Two civilians aboard the car were injured and the vehicle was destroyed as a result of the blast which took place around midday, the official added.

Those injured were shifted to a hospital in the district.

The Taliban has largely been using home-made IEDs to launch suicide attacks and roadside bombings against security forces but these also inflict casualties on civilians.

Earlier on Monday, two children were killed and three other people were wounded in an IED blast in provincial capital Jalalabad city.

Nearly 3,700 civilians were killed and more than 6,800 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in 2014, according to official figures released by the UN mission in the country.