Jihad du Jour: Wedding Party Taken Down by the Taliban...Roadside bomb kills 10 wedding guests

Posted Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:15am AEDT

A Taliban-style roadside bomb has torn through a vehicle taking a family to a wedding party in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 10 people, mostly women and children.

"The mine was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan to target military forces. It hit a civilian bus," said Abdul Jabar Purdili, police chief in western Herat province.

The bomb, similar to those used by Taliban and other insurgents in the long war in Afghanistan, was planted on a road between Herat and Nimroz provinces, both bordering Iran, he said.

Four other people were injured, he said.

Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are the main weapon of Taliban-led insurgents who have been fighting the Western-backed government since being pushed from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The bombs are detonated by remote control or by pressure as vehicles pass over them. They are cheap and easy to make, but difficult to detect.

They exact a deadly toll on the 150,000 international troops under US and NATO command, accounting for many of the almost 600 killed so far this year, compared to 521 for all of 2009. They also cause life-changing injuries.

Many of their victims, however, are ordinary Afghans, with the majority of civilian deaths and injuries blamed on the Taliban.

- AFP