Two children were killed Saturday in a blast in southern Afghanistan's province of Kandahar.

"Two innocent children were martyred in Zang area of Panjwai district after they stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) Saturday morning," the provincial government said in a statement.

The statement blamed Taliban insurgent group for planting the IED, saying hours before the blast one Taliban militant was killed when the IED he was planting detonated prematurely at the same area.

Afghan Taliban has launched massive IED attacks against Afghan national security forces and the NATO-led troops in recent years but the IEDs also claimed the lives of civilians.

More than 1,300 Afghan civilians were killed and over 2,500 injured in conflict-related violence in the first half of this year, according to a UN report released in Kabul in July.