Afghanistan: Roadside explosion kills 18 civilians, mostly women & Children, returning from a wedding, as US hands over security to Afghan forces

From the AP:

A roadside bomb killed 18 civilians Sunday, mostly women and children, after it struck a small bus coming from a wedding in a lawless district of eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, police said... The blast [also] wounded five women and two were in critical condition...

The U.N. said in the first six months of this year, 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 were wounded in the ongoing 12-year Afghan conflict...

Earlier Sunday, a bomb apparently targeting a group of soldiers killed a civilian in a market in the capital, Kabul... A man who identified himself as Ziaudin said his 10-year-old daughter was killed...  Four civilians were wounded in addition to the soldiers... The bomb was placed under vegetables in a shop.

There has been a spike in violence around Afghanistan in recent months as the insurgents try to take advantage of a security handover from foreign forces to the Afghans. The handover is the latest step in the gradual withdrawal of troops from the U.S.-led international military coalition, which will be completed at the end of 2014.