Six civilians were killed when their car ran over a roadside bomb in Afghanistan' s Helmand province, some 555 km south of capital city of Kabul, local government said in a press release on Tuesday.

"A total of six civilians including women and children were killed as their vehicle touched off a roadside bomb along a road in Hidar Abad area of Gereshk district on Monday," the press release said.

It also said two women were injured in the blast.

In a separate incident, two policemen and three civilians were injured when a motorbike bomb went off near a police vehicle in Helmand's Sangin district Tuesday afternoon, according to the press release. "The motor cycle bomb was detonated when a police vehicle was running along a road in Sangin district at about 02:00 p.m. Tuesday. But police after a search operation detained a suspected man who might use a remote control device to detonated the bomb," it said.

It blamed Taliban insurgent for initiating the attacks. However, the insurgent group, who launched a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO-led forces stationed in the country in May, has not made comments yet.

A total of 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in the first half of 2011, a 15 percent rise over the same period of 2010, according to the United Nations mid-year report released in Kabul on July.

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