Ghazni:
Police say a roadside bomb has killed 18 civilians and wounded five as they rode a small bus home after attending a wedding in a lawless district of eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
Deputy provincial police chief Colonel Asadullah Ensafi said the blast occurred Sunday in the Andar district as the bus travelled from one village to another.
He says the dead include 14 women, three men and a child. Ensfai says the wounded are all women and two are in critical condition.
Roadside bombs are the Taliban's weapon of choice and are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties.
Andar is one of the few districts in Ghazni where the Taliban retain some measure of control and often attack security forces, mostly by laying bombs along roads.