5 children killed in mortar shelling attack in Afghanistan

Five children were killed and two others wounded after a mortar shell struck a residential area in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman on Sunday, the provincial government said.

"One mortar round fired by armed opponents landed in Omarzai locality in provincial capital Mehtarlam city roughly at mid-day. The blast killed five innocent children on the spot and injured two other kids," it said in a statement.

The wounded were shifted to a hospital in the city some 90 km east of Afghan capital Kabul.

The provincial authorities met with the victims' families shortly after the incident and ordered the security forces to bring to justice the perpetrators behind the in-human act, the statement reads.

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.

More than 715 civilians were killed and over 1,460 others injured in conflict-related incidents across Afghanistan in the first three months of the year, according to figures released by the United Nation mission in the country.

The mission has attributed 62 percent of the civilian casualties over the period to the Taliban and other insurgent groups, 21 percent to security forces while the rest 17 percent were unattributed to or caused by explosive remnants of war.