Air strike kills eight Afghan civilians

LOGAR, Afghanistan: At least eight civilians -- including children -- were killed in an air strike that destroyed two homes in eastern Afghanistan, an official said on Monday.

The deaths come amid a flare-up in violence across war-torn Afghanistan, where civilians are dying each day even as the US and the Taliban have claimed progress in an ongoing series of peace talks. Six people were wounded in Sunday night’s strike in the Baraki Barak district of Logar, some 70 kilometres southeast of Kabul, according to district governor Ahmad Wais Abdul Rahimzai.

"The air strike has hit two residential houses in the district," he told AFP, noting that the homes were occupied by Kuchi, an ordinarily nomadic people who sometimes settle in permanent structures.