Three children were killed and two others injured in the northern province of Balkh after a mortar shell left behind from past fighting exploded while they were playing with it, the Taliban police command said in a statement.
The blast occurred on Wednesday in the Nahr-e-Shahi district of Balkh Province, the statement said. The children had found the unexploded ordnance and were reportedly striking it with stones when it detonated.
“Tragically, these children mistook the shell for something to play with,” the statement said.
Unexploded munitions and land mines left over from decades of war remain a persistent danger in Afghanistan, especially for children who often come across them while playing or collecting firewood in rural areas.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan remains among the most heavily mined countries in the world. According to UN reports, hundreds of civilians — many of them children — are killed or injured each year by land mines and other remnants of war.
While international mine-clearing organizations continue operations across Afghanistan, the scale of contamination remains immense following more than four decades of conflict.
