KABUL, Jan 31: At least 16 people, six of them Afghan army soldiers, were killed and hundreds stranded as heavy snow caused accidents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan officials and the US military said on Monday.

The six soldiers returning from holidays in Pakistan were among at least 11 people killed when a minibus skidded off the road and overturned on Thursday, Ibrarullah, commander of the border regiment in the eastern Afghan province of Ningarhar said.

The soldiers were heading back to Kabul from the Pakistani border city of Peshawar when the accident occurred at Lwargai village on the Pakistan side of the border, he said. "Their bodies were sent to Kabul on Friday," said Ibrarullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name.

Three other civilians were wounded, he said, blaming the accident on heavy rain and snowfall. Five other people died in southern Afghanistan, including three who froze to death, after accidents on the Kabul-Kandahar road over the weekend.

Two people died of their injuries while three died of exposure after they abandoned their car in the hope of reaching the nearest village in Zabul province, provincial governor Khyal Mohammad Husseini said. The US military confirmed the death of five people in Zabul and said about 10 to 15 others were treated by coalition forces for exposure. -AFP