Motor shell explosion kills 9 children in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL: At least nine children were killed and another four sustained injuries in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan on Monday, according to the office of a Taliban-appointed governor.

In a statement, the governor’s office said the blast took place when a cart selling food items struck an old, unexploded mortar shell in the district of Lalopar, in eastern Nangarhar province.

The wounded children were taken to the regional hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad for treatment, the statement said. No other details were immediately available.

Afghanistan is among the countries with the most unexploded land mines and other ordnance from the country’s decades of war and conflict. When the ordnance detonates, the victims are often children.

The province is the headquarters of Taliban rivals, the militant Islamic State group (IS), which has staged several attacks targeting Afghanistan’s new rulers since the Taliban took over the country in mid-August.

However, the IS has operated in Afghanistan since 2014, carrying out dozens of horrific attacks and most often targeting the country’s minority Shia Muslims.