Eight children killed in the explosion of the Afghan mine

Fifteen civilians, including eight children, were killed on Wednesday when their vehicle hit a land mine in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz province, a government official said.

"Around 17:00 pm a mine planted by Taliban terrorists hit a civilian car ... killing 15 civilians and injuring two others," said Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.

Six women and one man were also among those killed in the explosion in Kunduz, on the country's northern border with Tajikistan, Rahimi said. No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion. It was also not clear whether it was a targeted attack.

However, there are regular clashes in the region between Taliban rebels and US-backed Afghan forces.

Insurgents attacked the provincial capital, also called Kunduz, in early September, but failed to capture it. The Taliban quickly conquered the city in 2015.

The explosion comes during what has been a period of relative and restless calm, where the rate of large-scale attacks has declined in recent weeks. The comparative pause followed a blood-stained presidential campaign season that ended with a general election on September 28th.

But Wednesday's explosion comes less than a week after a foreign national was killed and at least five other people injured in a grenade attack on a United Nations vehicle in Kabul on November 24.

The attack occurred on a road frequently used by United Nations workers who move workers between central Kabul and a large United Nations complex on the outskirts of the capital.

The United Nations said two other staff members - one Afghan and one international - were injured.

Aid agencies and non-governmental groups are sometimes targeted in the war in Afghanistan.

In 2011, seven foreign United Nations workers - including four Nepalese, a Swedish, a Norwegian and a Romanian - were killed in an attack on a United Nations complex in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Afghans are still waiting for the results of those presidential elections on September 28, with a new account mired in technical difficulties and quarrels between the incumbent, President Ashraf Ghani, and his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

Afghans are also waiting to see what could happen in the negotiations between Washington and the Taliban.

U.S. President Donald Trump closed those talks in September during the year the Taliban violence continued, but on November 22 he suggested to U.S. broadcaster Fox News that negotiations could resume.