Bomb attack kills 12, injures 20 in Herat

HERAT - At least 12 people were killed and another 20 were injured in a remote controlled bomb blast in the western Afghanistan city of Herat on Monday, just weeks before the presidential elections.

Provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said the blast was caused by a bomb planted in a roadside rubbish bin and remotely detonated.

“It exploded as the convoy of district police passed by,” he told reporters.

A woman and a child were among the dead, he added.

Motorcycles and bicycles lay discarded at the site, and children’s shoes and a woman’s veil were left abandoned on the ground. There was some police gunfire after the blast, reports said. (ANI)