Bomb kills 5 kids, woman in Afghanistan: official

A bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed five children and a woman after it went off as they were playing with it inside a Taliban commander's home, an official said today.

A bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed five children and a woman after it went off as they were playing with it inside a Taliban commander's home, an official said on Friday.

The incident occurred on Thursday morning in the remote Mata Khan district, inside the house of an insurgent leader named Abdullah, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the governor in Paktika province.

According to Afghan, the commander had assembled a roadside bomb and left it inside his home, which he shared with relatives.

It exploded when the children, aged from three to seven years, began playing with it.

Abdullah escaped arrest and is being sought by Afghan security troops, which were the intended target for the bomb, said the spokesman.

The five children belonged to Abdullah's brother and his wife, while the killed woman was his sister. The spokesman had no other details.