Two school children killed in Afghan blast

Two school children were killed and one person was wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Zabul on Wednesday, police said.

"An improvised bomb targeted a private school vehicle in provincial capital Qalat city, killing a boy and a girl at around midday. The driver of the vehicle also received life-threatening wounds by the attack," Ghulam Jilani Farahi, deputy provincial police chief, told Xinhua.

The innocent children belonged to the family of a provincial police official, he said.

The security forces have launched a massive manhunt in the area to nab the culprits behind the bombing.

More than 3,540 civilians were killed and over 7,450 injured across Afghanistan last year, according to a report released by the UN mission in the country last month.

The report has attributed 62 percent of the casualties to the Taliban and other insurgent groups, 17 percent were attributed to security forces while the rest 21 percent of civilian casualties were unattributed or caused by explosive remnants of war.

The report has highlighted 37 percent increase in women casualties and a 14 percent increase in child casualties last year in compare with 2014. Enditem