REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PULI ALAM -- At least 13 people, including women and children, were killed in an explosion on Sunday as Taliban militants prepared a car bomb in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The explosives detonated prematurely as they were being placed in a car in a house in Puli Alam, the capital of Logar province, deputy provincial police chief Abdul Wali Toofan told AFP.

"Nine Taliban, including Pakistanis, plus two women and two children were killed," he said. "They wanted to fill the car with explosives and detonate it in a busy part of the city, but it exploded in their house."

Din Mohammad Darvish, the Logar provincial spokesman, told AFP that the house was destroyed by the blast and no one inside had survived.

He added that the Taliban were probably planning to use the car bomb to disrupt the election campaign currently under way in Afghanistan or to target polling day on April 5.

Afghan forces are responsible for security during the election as NATO-led combat troops complete their withdrawal from the country by the end of the year.

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