Ten girls die in Afghanistan explosion as US pushes for permanent presence - World Socialist Web Site
By Bill Van Auken
18 December 2012
►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/afgh-d18.html
The horror of the protracted US intervention in Afghanistan was driven home again on Monday as at least 10 young Afghan girls, ages nine to eleven, were blown to pieces in what local authorities said was a landmine explosion. Two other girls were badly wounded and reported in critical condition at a local hospital.
The girls were gathering firewood in eastern Nangarhar province when they accidentally set off a buried mine with an ax. A police spokesman said that the mine was not located near a road or any other evident target, and that another old, unexploded mine was found nearby.