Roadside mine kills 19 bus passengers

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A bus hit a roadside mine Wednesday, leaving 19 passengers dead in the resulting explosion on another day of deadly violence in the country, authorities said.

The bus was traveling from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, to Sangin district when the incident occurred, CNN reported, quoting a spokesman for the provincial governor. Those killed included women and children.

China's Xinhua news agency, quoting an official, said five others were injured in the Helmand mine attack.

"A mine planted by Taliban militants struck a mini-bus outside provincial capital Lashkar Gah at around 11 a.m., local time, ... killing 19 commuters including five children and wounding five others, all civilians," Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for provincial administration, told Xinhua.

Xinhua reported there had been no comment from Taliban militants, who use suicide and roadside bombings in their fight against the Afghan government.

More than 60 people were killed and dozens more were injured Tuesday in coordinated bomb explosions in Kabul and two other cities. Most of those killed and injured were members of the Afghan Shiite minority, who had gathered in large numbers outside their mosques for their most sacred religious observance.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai canceled his scheduled visit to Britain to return home after the Shiite mosque attacks.

The Taliban has denied involvement in the Tuesday attacks, but a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Janghvi, a Sunni group based in Pakistan, reportedly had claimed responsibility for them.