Roadside bomb planted by Afghan Taliban kills 5

A roadside bomb planted by the Afghan Taliban killed 5 civilians from the same family in the southern Kandahar province today, the Interior Ministry said.
In a statement, it condemned the killings, adding that three of the victims were children. The attack follows last weekend's presidential runoff, a vote which the Taliban had warned Afghans not to participate in or face attack.
Yesterday, officials said the group had cut of the fingers of a dozen voters in retribution and also killed 11 people.
The two candidates, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have both vowed to improve ties with the West and sign a long-delayed security pact allowing nearly 10,000 US troops to remain in the country for two more years.

Official preliminary results are to be announced on July 2, with final results released on July 22. The commission plans to release partial results in the coming weeks.
The voting was relatively peaceful despite a series of rocket barrages and other scattered attacks that the interior minister said killed 47 people, including 20 civilians and an election commission worker. He also said 60 militants were killed.