LASHKARGAH - Nineteen civilians, including women and children, were killed in a road side bombing in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, an official said.

The explosion took place at around 11am in Sangin district, where a passenger bus struck the roadside bomb, the governor's spokesman, Daud Ahmadi, told reporters
He said five others, wounded in the explosion, were evacuated to a health facility of the International Security Assistance Force.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack that a came a day after 60 people, mostly Shiite mourners, were killed in a bombing at a shrine in Kabul.