Roadside bombs kill 14 in Afghanistan

Roadside bombs have killed 14 Afghan civilians and one member of the US-led international military coalition in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and Nato authorities said today.

A minivan ran over one bomb today in Arghistan district, along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, said Ahmad Jawed Faisal, the spokesman for Kandahar province.

Other civilians, who were riding on a tractor, arrived to help the dead and wounded, but the tractor struck a second bomb in the road, he added.

Authorities were trying to determine how many people died in each blast. At least three other civilians were injured in the explosions.

According to the United Nations, last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed. The number of Afghan civilians killed dropped 36 percent in the first four months of this year compared with last year, but the UN says that too many are still being caught up in violence.

Separately, a Nato service member was killed in another roadside bomb explosion yesterday in southern Afghanistan.

Nato did not disclose where the blast occurred, or provide the nationality of the soldier killed.

So far this year, 224 Nato service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

AP