At least seven civilians have been killed and more than a dozen others injured in a roadside bomb explosion in the troubled southeastern Afghanistan, officials say.

Local Afghan authorities said that the incident happened after a vehicle carrying wedding guests struck a roadside bomb in the Andar district of Ghazni province on Friday.

According to reports, the vehicle was severely damaged in the explosion. Sources say the injured passengers were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Following the explosion, Afghan police and army personnel reached the site and cordoned off the area.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, but pro-Taliban militants have been blamed for such attacks in the past.

Roadside explosions and bomb attacks are by far the most lethal weapons Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.

Also on Friday, over 30 people were killed in a US drone strike on a funeral ceremony in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost. Local authorities said that the drone struck an area in the mountainous region of Khost, close to Pakistan’s border.

A new study, conducted by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies in the US, titled Costs of War, shows that following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, almost 100,000 people have been killed and a same number of others injured in the war-torn country.

Foreign troops and Afghan forces have failed to maintain security across Afghanistan more than 13 years after the US-led NATO troops invaded the crisis-hit country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

JR/AS/MHB