Six Afghan children killed in fighting
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As many as six children were killed in fighting near the central Afghan city of Ghazni on Friday but there were conflicting accounts of how they died, with officials blaming the Taliban and others saying they died in an air strike by Afghan forces.
Following high-profile attacks on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and a compound of the Save the Children aid group in Jalalabad in recent days, the violence in Ghazni highlighted the daily toll on Afghan civilians across the country.
Provincial officials said a Taliban mortar attack struck the village while the children were outside, killing the six and wounding two.
"Children were playing in the yard of a house when the Taliban fired mortars. One hit the ground and killed six children and wounded two," Ghazni police chief Mohammad Zaman told reporters.
Mohammad Radmanish, a spokesman for the defence ministry, also blamed Taliban for the attack: "We can say clearly that it was a rocket by the enemy forces." he said.
