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Bicycle bomb kills two civilians near Iranian border

A roadside bomb fixed on a bicycle exploded yesterday in western Afghanistan killing two civilians and injuring 16 others, police and a health official said.

The bomb was planted on a bicycle left near a road normally used by NATO and Afghan military convoys in the city of Herat near the border with Iran.

"It was a bomb blast and two civilians were killed," area police chief Nisar Ahmad Paykar said.

Police said six people were injured. An official at the city's main hospital said 16 people were injured -- two of them in critical condition.

"Sixteen people with different injuries have been admitted to our hospital. Two of them are in bad condition," Herat hospital head Barakatullah Mohammadi said.

The police official said it was not known if the explosion was caused by a remote control device and who was the target. The road is frequently used by Afghan and NATO forces, he added.

An investigation will be launched into the incident, he said.

Taliban militants, who have been waging a guerrilla insurgency against the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan government, have been blamed for most of such attacks.

More than 45,000 foreign troops -- some 35,000 of them from ISAF -- are based in Afghanistan to root out Taliban insurgents and help the government to maintain security and reconstruction.
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