'2 Afghans killed as rocket strikes UNICEF car'

The last time UNICEF suffered any violence in Afghanistan was in May of last year.

Militants fired a rocket at a car carrying at least two UNICEF workers in western Afghanistan, killing two Afghans and seriously wounding a third, police said.

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The rocket was fired as the car was travelling to the city of Herat in western Afghanistan, said Nisar Ahmad Pakar, a district police officer. The car's driver and one passenger were killed, he said. A third passenger was seriously wounded.

Edward Carwardine, a spokesman for UNICEF in Kabul, the capital, on Friday said a driver for the aid group, an Afghan staff member and a third person from another aid group were in the car. He said the UNICEF staff member was seriously injured in the afternoon attack and that police had informed the UN agency that two people were killed. He said he could not immediately confirm if either was a UNICEF employee.

Carwardine said the attack against the UN's children agency was unusual, and that he could not recall any UNICEF fatalities in the last four years in Afghanistan.

The UNICEF car was accompanied by another car carrying armed guards, which is standard procedure for the agency in Herat province, he said.

Elsewhere yesterday, an oil tanker exploded just outside of Kandahar, killing the driver of the truck, district administrative chief Aghi Siraj Khan said.