SHARAN, Afghanistan, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan school children were killed Thursday when an improvised bomb exploded in the country's eastern province of Paktika, bringing to six the number of children killed in bombing in one day.
"Two innocent children were killed when they stepped on a pressure-plate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Marzko area of Sar Hawza district at 10:30 a.m. Thursday," the provincial government said in a press statement.
The blast took place when the victims were walking to their houses in the province, 155 km south of national capital Kabul, it noted without providing details.
Taliban militants, who have been waging an insurgency for more than one decade, use IEDs to launch roadside bomb attack on security forces but the lethal weapon also inflicted casualties on civilians.
Earlier on Thursday, four girls aging from 10 to 12 were killed when an IED was detonated in Helmand province, 555 km south of Kabul.
Afghan children bear the brunt of Taliban-linked insurgency and conflicts. On June 3, up to 10 school children were killed and 15 children were wounded in a suicide bombing in the eastern Paktia province, 100 km south of Kabul. The bombing which hit a military convoy near a school also killed two U.S. soldiers and one Afghan policeman.
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