Eight suspects have been arrested after an explosion near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar that killed up to nine people travelling in a minibus.
Officials revised down the estimate of the number killed in Friday morning's blast about 12 miles south of Kandahar from 18 previously given by the provincial government.
The head of security in Kandahar, General Akram Khakrezwal, said nine were dead and two wounded in the explosion, which a spokesman for the provincial government said had been caused by an anti-tank mine rigged to a mortar bomb.
"We have arrested eight suspects so far," he said. "The investigation is going on."
Gen Khakrezwal said authorities suspected the Hezb-e-Islami faction of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Taliban remnants of carrying out the attack.
AFP