Roadside bombs kill 11 in Afghanistan

Two roadside bombs killed 11 people in Afghanistan on Tuesday, including passengers on a bus that took a detour to avoid an explosive-laden road, officials said.

Roadside bombs are a major threat to civilians in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have escalated their activities as U.S.-led foreign forces withdraw.

A bus traveling to Kabul from southern Helmand province had to take a desert path, because the road it would have normally used was closed to allow NATO troops to defuse a roadside bomb. Instead, the bus hit another such explosive along its detour in Muqur district of Ghazni province, said Assadullah Ensafi, the provincial deputy police chief.

The seven dead included three children, while 17 people were wounded in the explosion, he said.

Separately, in Helmand's Musa Khela district, a car hit a roadside bomb, killing one woman and three men, said Ummar Zawaq, spokesman for the provincial governor. Eight people were hurt, including three children, he said.

Also Tuesday, a suicide car bomb went off in front of an Afghan National Army security post in Logar province's Khushi district. The attack wounded four Afghan soldiers, said deputy police chief Rais Khan Abdul Rahimzai.

No one has claimed responsibility for any of Tuesday's bombings, but Taliban involvement is suspected.

Around 1,300 Afghan civilians were killed between February and August -- a large portion of them in Taliban attacks -- according to the United Nations. The U.N. says that 53 percent of these deaths were cause by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, like the roadside bombs used in Tuesday's attack.

As the United States pulls out its troops, which are expected be fully withdrawn by the end of 2014, the 30 percent increase in civilian casualties compared to the same period last year is cause for concern. Many fear that Afghan forces will not be able to maintain security on their own.

The latest string of bombings in Afghanistan occurs in the backdrop of neighboring Pakistan's decision to release several senior Taliban officials, including second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, at the Afghan government's request. The move is seen as a concession on the part of the Pakistani government to ameliorate tensions with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government.

Both governments hope that Baradar, who is expected to be released this month, will be amenable to holding peace talks with the Afghan government.

Al Jazeera and wire services