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Afghan Officials: Explosions Kill 6, Wound Over 20 | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KABUL, Afghanistan, (AP) – Three separate accidental explosions in the Afghan capital have left six people dead and more than 20 wounded, including some counternarcotics police, officials said Monday.

A policeman dropped a rocket-propelled grenade, which exploded as his unit set off from Kabul on Monday on an opium poppy eradication mission north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.

One policeman was killed and at least eight were wounded, said Dr. Ahmad Zia Aftali, chief of the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment.

However, a policeman who goes by the single name Khododad who witnessed the blast, said in all more than 15 were hurt.

Also on Monday, three children died and two others were wounded when an old artillery shell they were playing with exploded, Bashary said.

Another police official, Sayed Ekramudin, said two civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded in an explosion Sunday at a refuse dump in the city’s northern outskirts.

Ekramudin said a truck had hit a buried explosive.

After decades of war, Afghanistan remains littered with unexploded ordnance.