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Accidental explosions kill six in Afghanistan
Three accidental explosions in the Afghan capital leave six people dead and more than 20 wounded, including some counternarcotics officials, say the police.
Three accidental explosions in the Afghan capital have left six people dead and more than 20 wounded, including some counternarcotics police, officials said Monday. A policeman dropped a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded as his unit set off from Kabul on Monday on an opium poppy eradication mission north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.
One policeman was killed and at least eight were wounded, said Dr. Ahmad Zia Aftali, chief of the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment.
However, Khodadad, a policeman who goes by one name and witnessed the blast, said in all more than 15 were hurt.
Also Monday, three children died and two others were wounded when an old artillery shell they were playing with exploded, Bashary said.
Another police official, Sayed Ekramudin, said two civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in an explosion Sunday at a refuse dump in the city's northern outskirts.
Ekramudin said a truck had hit a buried explosive. After decades of war, Afghanistan remains littered with unexploded ordnance.
