KABUL: A roadside bomb destroyed a crowded minibus Thursday in western Afghanistan, killing 14 passengers who were all members of an extended family, a provincial official said. Rafi Behrozan, the spokesman for the Herat governor, said four others were wounded in the powerful morning blast in the Kushk Kuhna district of Herat province. Two additional bombs were found nearby on the same road but were defused by Afghan policemen, he added. “The explosion was very strong and the vehicle was destroyed. The majority of these aboard were killed,” Behrozan said. In the east on Thursday, a fuel tanker caught fire in Nangarhar province and officials said they believed a bomb had gone off inside or near the truck, sparking the blaze in Behsud district. Two suspects have been arrested, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar government. No one was injured, he said. Also Thursday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said a coalition airstrike the previous day killed four Afghan soldiers after they were mistaken for militants. Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the soldiers had left their base in Helmand's Musa Qala district on Wednesday night when they came under fire from NATO planes.A NATO statement said the strike was called in by a joint Afghan-NATO patrol that was attacked by insurgents.
