A roadside bomb blast hit a bus in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, killing 18 civilians, most of them women.
Afghan officials said the blast occurred in the Andar district of Ghazni province as the bus was going from one village to another just before dusk.
Fourteen women, three men and a child were reported killed. Five other women were were wounded, and a police official said two were in critical condition.
The United Nations says in the first six months of this year, 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 were wounded in the Afghan conflict, the majority of them by roadside bombs.