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Blast Kills 15 Civilians in Southern Afghanistan

   A  bomb  exploded in a central Afghanistan market Thursday, killing at
   least 15 civilians and wounding more than a dozen others.

   VOA News 14 January 2010

   A  bomb  exploded in a central Afghanistan market Thursday, killing at
   least 15 civilians and wounding more than a dozen others.
   Police  say  the  attack  occurred in the town of Dihrawud, in Uruzgan
   province.  The area was crowded as shoppers and vendors gathered for a
   bazaar.
   The  attack  comes  a  day after the United Nations said the number of
   civilians  killed  in  war-related violence in Afghanistan reached its
   highest  level  last  year since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in
   2001.
   In  the  report, the chief human rights officer at the U.N. mission in
   Kabul,  Norah  Niland said 2,412 Afghan civilians were killed in 2009,
   two-thirds of them by anti-government militants.  The official said 25
   percent  of  civilian  deaths  were  caused  by pro-government forces,
   including NATO and U.S. troops, a drop from the previous year.
   Most  of the civilian victims of insurgents died from a combination of
   homemade  bombs  and  suicide  bombings.   Airstrikes accounted for 60
   percent of the deaths caused by coalition troops.
   Last  year  also  saw the highest number of deaths among international
   forces, particularly for the United States and Britain.

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