Eight civilians are killed on Wednesday in a roadside bomb in Helmand province, where US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is aying a visit to a military camp there.

Eight civilians are killed on Wednesday in a roadside bomb in Helmand province, where US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is aying a visit to a military camp there.

"A roadside mine planted by the Taliban blasted in Marja district when a minivan touched it, triggering a big explosion. As a result eight civilians were killed," provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.

The blast happened about a 15-minute helicopter flight from Camp Bastion, where Panetta landed Wednesday for talks with local government officials before a planned meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

Panetta visit comes just three days after a US occupation soldier killed and burned at least 16 civilians in a village in Kandahar province. The incident sparked anger within the Afghan, causing the tensions between Afghanistan and US to rise.

The relations between the two countries were already strained following burning copies of the holy Quran at US afghan Base in Bagram two weeks earlier.

“DEEPLY TROUBLING INCIDENTS”
Commenting on these incidents, Panetta said they were “deeply troubling” that have challenged the war effort in Afghanistan.
“Each of these incidents is deeply troubling", he said.

"We will not allow individual incidents to undermine our resolve”.
"We will be tested, we will be challenged by the enemy, by ourselves and by the hell of war itself", Panetta added.

However, he “thanked” the troops for their “efforts”, saying “our strategy is working”.