YEREVAN, JULY 4, ARMENPRESS: Roadside bombs killed four young girls and two schoolboys in Afghanistan on Thursday while a police inspector was gunned down on her way to work, reports “Armenpress” calling BBC.

The girls, aged 10 to 12 years, had been sent by their families to a river to fetch some water for a wedding that was being held in a home on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The bomb went off alongside a footpath through a field the girls had taken to make their way back home.

Meanwhile, a top female police officer has been shot dead in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Lt Islam Bibi was ambushed by unknown attackers as she left her home in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, a spokesman for Helmand police said.

The commander of 32 female police officers, Lt Bibi, 37, was known as a role model for other women in the conservative province. Her death came as four girls were also killed in a roadside blast in Helmand. Lt Bibi was on a motorbike alongside her son-in-law when she was wounded in the gun attack. She later died in hospital.

Last month Afghan forces assumed security responsibility for the whole country ahead of Nato's departure. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are one of their biggest challenges. Helmand is one of Afghanistan's most volatile provinces.

Correspondents say that civilian casualties in the south have increased recently, and many of those are due to the use of improvised explosives by the militants.