Roundup: Civilians bear war brunt in Afghanistan

In the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, the civilians always bear the brunt of war as more non-combatants lose their lives, properties or get life-time disability.

The latest violence which harmed non-combatants is the explosion of a roadside bomb in the southern Helmand province Saturday night, which left over a dozen civilians, including women and children, dead.

"A mine planted by militants struck a mini-bus in Marja district of Helmand province at 6:00 p.m. local time Saturday ( 1330 GMT), killing 14 innocent civilians on the spot and injuring five others," provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak told Xinhua.

Several women and children were among the victims, the official said, blaming the Taliban militants for the gruesome bombing.

Notorious for growing poppy and militancy, the southern Helmand province with Lashkar Gah as its capital 555 km south of the national capital of Kabul has been regarded as a Taliban hotbed in the war-torn Afghanistan.

The Taliban, which has been fighting the government to regain power, is largely relying on roadside and suicide bombings but the lethal weapons often harm civilians.

In the first four months of 2015, more than 1,000 civilians were killed and over 1,900 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban- led insurgency, a 16-percent increase over the same period last year, according to official figures released by the UN mission in the country.

The UN mission in Afghanistan in an earlier report released in February documented killing of nearly 3,700 civilians and injuries of more than 6,800 others in 2014, a 22-percent jump in civilian casualties from 2013.

Moreover, the ongoing conflicts between the government forces and Taliban militants have left hundreds of thousands of the families homeless elsewhere in the country.

Only in the northern Kunduz province, more than 2,000 families have been displaced in Chardara district over the past one month, according to local officials; while hundreds of farmers in the neighboring Baghlan province have failed to harvest their farmlands due to conflict in Baghlan-e-Markazi and Dand-d-Ghori districts so far this year. Endi