Bomb kills six Afghan construction workers

A roadside bomb ripped through a truck on Monday, killing six Afghans working for a road construction company near the country's eastern border with Pakistan, police said. The bomb struck the vehicle at around 9:50 am (0520 GMT) in the Dangam district of Kunar province, provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said. "As a result six people were killed and two people were wounded. All the casualties are civilians and they were heading to work," he told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police blamed the Taliban for the attack. Eastern Afghanistan is a flashpoint in the 10-year Taliban insurgency against the Western-backed government and around 140,000 US-led foreign troops. Afghan and US officials have stepped up pressure on Pakistan to clampdown on Taliban bases, but Islamabad argues it is already overstretched fighting homegrown militants responsible for suicide attacks within its own borders.