Afghan school children killed in blast

A suicide bomber has killed 13 people, including 10 school children, outside a market in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province, officials say.

Two foreign soldiers and a local policeman were among those killed in the blast on Monday.

The police said the attacker was targeting a passing US military patrol.

General Zelmia Oryakhail, the provincial police chief of the province, said the bomber was on a motorbike and detonated his explosives outside the market in Samkani district as American forces passed.

He said a local school had just let pupils, who were between 10 and 16 years old, out for the day.

Oryakhail said 15 other students were wounded.

The American military delegation had just attended a security briefing at the district administrative office, said district chief Saleh Mohammad Ahsas, who was in the meeting.

He said the bomber appeared to have been waiting for the delegation and struck as they left the compound.

The US military coalition in Afghanistan confirmed that two of its service members died in the explosion. It did not confirm their nationalities.

Seven more Afghan civilians including two children were also killed on Monday in the eastern province of Laghman when their vehicle hit a bomb in the road.

A statement from the provincial government said a group of four women and two children had gone with a male driver into the hills to collect firewood. On their way back, their vehicle hit the device and all inside were killed.