Kabul, June 20 (IANS): At least 14 civilians were killed and five wounded in a blast in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand on Saturday, an official said.

"The incident took place in Marjah district at around 6 p.m. when a minibus touched off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a main road, leaving 14 aboard the vehicle dead and five wounded," provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak told Xinhua news agency.

Several women and children were among the victims, the official said, adding that an investigation has been launched into the incident.

The official blamed the Taliban militant group for the attack.

The Taliban has largely been using home-made IEDs to launch suicide attacks and roadside bombings against security forces, but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.

In the first four months of 2015, more than 1,000 civilians were killed and over 1,900 wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led insurgency, which showed a 16 percent increase over the same period last year, according to official figures released by the UN mission in the country.