Kabul, June 5 (IANS): At least five civilians were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the eastern Afghanistan province of Ghazni on Friday, an official said.

"A vehicle touched off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Naghi area of provincial capital Ghazni city at around midday. The blast killed five civilians and injured five other people aboard the vehicle," Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, deputy provincial governor, told Xinhua news agency.

The official blamed Taliban militants for the incident.

"The security forces shifted those killed and injured to a nearby hospital. They also found two bombs near the site of the blast where a wedding party was underway," Ahmadi added.

The Taliban have 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 970 civilians were killed and more than 1,960 others 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.