Afghan children killed while playing with mortar

25/08/2006 - 15:30:40
Four Afghan boys playing with a mortar shell were killed when the device exploded today, an official said.

Two other boys were wounded in the accident south of the capital, Kabul, in Ghazni province’s Kaghatu district, said provincial spokesman Abdul Ali Fakory.

Fakory said the six children found the unexploded mortar in a field and started handling it, causing it to detonate and kill four of them.

Fakory had no details on the boys who died, but he said the two wounded children were aged eight and 12 years and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance from three decades of conflict.