Afghan violence kills 13: officials

13. October 2008, 11:15
KABUL (AFP) -

Eight civilians were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan, as the US-led coalition said it killed five Taliban fighters elsewhere in the country on Monday.

Six civilians were killed Monday as their minivan struck a mine in the central province of Ghazni while two others died when an alleged Taliban fighters' rocket aimed at a military base hit their home overnight, officials said.

The roadside bomb was allegedly laid by alleged Taliban fighters to target security forces. It hit a civilian van and martyred six innocent people," provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP.

An elderly woman and a child were killed elsewhere in Ghazni when a rocket hit their home, provincial police chief Abdul Qayoum Baqizoi said.

Two other children were injured in the attack, he said. A spokesman for the NATO occupation forces, called officially as International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the children were being treated in a military hospital.

Separately the US-led coalition, which operates alongside ISAF, said it killed five Taliban fighters in a raid, also in Ghazni, said to have been in contact with Al-Qaeda fighters.

Five Afghan men who worked as translators were abducted by unknown gunmen in the eastern province of Paktia early Monday as they were driving to Kabul by taxi, a district governor said.

It was not clear if the abductors were Taliban and the taxi drivers had been taken in for questioning, said the officials, Babaker Khil.

Afghanistan has seen a spate of kidnappings, more frequently for ransom than as part of an insurgency to overthrow the NATO-installed government of President Hamid Karzai.