KABUL, July 21: A landmine killed 13 bus passengers and six others were injured in the central Afghan province of Bamiyan, a United Nations spokesman said on Sunday.

The incident occurred on Saturday morning close to Bandi Amir lake which lies to the west of Bamiyan town. The area was the scene of heavy clashes during the five-year rule of the Taliban regime which was ousted last year, David Sing told reporters.

“According to reports from the field 13 passengers were killed and six wounded,” Sing said.

He said the United Nations had been asked to request help from the Turkish-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul to airlift the wounded by helicopter.

The 18-nation ISAF is on standby and waiting for confirmation that the airlift is needed.

According to Sing, the injured passengers and bodies of the dead were transported to Bamiyan hospital by a de-mining agency.

He said the bus driver had been told by villagers to take a detour because of the risk of landmines planted during years of fighting between the Taliban and the Shi’ite faction of Hezb-i-Wahdat, which controlled most of the central highlands.

UN estimates say more than 10 million mines have been laid in Afghanistan, where Cold War rivals fought each other through their proxies in the 1980s.

Mines maim or kill dozens of Afghans each month and in some areas they are preventing refugees from returning home and farmers from cultivating the land.

De-mining agencies have spent millions of dollars trying to clear the threat in Afghanistan, but mines still go undetected.

In one of the worst accidents involving civilians, nearly 40 people in a wedding party died in 1998 when their bus hit an anti-tank mine hidden along a main road in the southern city of Kandahar which had been declared safe from mines. —Reuters