Afghanistan still regularly sees explosions from left-over land mines and other unexploded ordnance that kill dozens of people despite decades of clean-up efforts.

An explosion has struck a group of children who were playing on the outskirts of a provincial capital in the country’s north, killing three boys and wounding 12 children, four of them critically, an Afghan police official has said.

The explosion took place on Tuesday at the outskirts of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, provincial police spokesman Jawed Basharat has said, adding that the victims were all between 7 and 12 years old.

It was not immediately clear what the source of the explosion was, said Basharat, and that it could have been a land mine or a left-over ordnance from the wars.

Afghanistan still regularly sees explosions from left-over land mines and other unexploded ordnance that kill dozens of people despite decades of clean-up efforts across the country.

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