A roadside bomb ripped through a van carrying civilians in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding nine others, while three Australian soldiers were wounded in another blast in the south, officials said. The explosion that killed the civilians happened in Sabari district of the eastern Khost province while the van was on a road also used by foreign and Afghan troops, said Police Chief Abdul Qajum Bakizoy. He blamed Taliban militants for planting the bomb, according to a report of Associated Press. In the southern Uruzgan province, a blast wounded three Australian soldiers and their interpreter, Australia's Defense Department said in a statement Wednesday. The Australians were attacked by the Taliban while patrolling alongside Afghan soldiers, the statement said. «The wounded soldiers and interpreter were given combat first aid by the patrol and moved by helicopter to the Dutch hospital at Tarin Kowt, when the tactical situation allowed,» the statement said.
