Blast in Northern Afghanistan Leaves 4 Women, 2 Children Dead - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Four women and two children have been killed as a result of a blast in northern Afghanistan caused by an improvised explosive device, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The Xinhua news agency, citing local authorities, reported that the explosion occurred at midday on 28 December in Afghanistan's northern province of Faryab and also left one person injured.

"The victims were passing a dusty side road before one of them stepped on a pressure-plate improvised explosive device (IED), setting off an explosion in Ganji locality of Shirin Tagab district", the Press Officer of the Afghan Armed Forces' 20th Pamir Division Abdul Hadi Jamal said, as quoted by the news agency.

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Prior to that, US media reported that US President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to develop a plan to withdraw about half of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, coinciding with the president's announcement that 2,000 American troops would be pulled out of Syria, as Trump declared that Daesh had been defeated.

Afghanistan has long been suffering from unstable political, social and security issues due to the activity of the Daesh* terrorist group and the Taliban*. The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces are currently conducting joint offensive operations to combat terrorism across the country.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) and Taliban are terrorist groups banned in Russia.