NEW YORK - The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack this morning on a bus traveling along the Kandahar-Herat Highway in Afghanistan.

The Secretary-General reiterates that international humanitarian law explicitly prohibits indiscriminate attacks and attacks directed against civilians and appeals to all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan to uphold their obligations to protect civilians.

The Secretary-General expresses his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of Afghanistan. He wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.