Blast Kills Nine Afghan Girls

Nine young girls were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan Monday, local officials told The Washington Post. Three others were wounded in the blast, and all victims were schoolchildren between the ages of 9 and 11 who were collecting firewood when the landmine exploded. It’s not yet clear whether the mine had been planted by the Taliban or was left over from Afghanistan’s war with Soviet invaders. In a separate but nearby incident in Kabul, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside the offices of a military base used by foreign forces in the country’s capital, killing at least one person and injuring at least 15 others.