JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Eleven members of the Mirza Gul family, 10 of them children, gathered around an unfamiliar object on the ground outside their home. It was 6 a.m. on April 29, and the night before, the Taliban had fought Afghan soldiers nearby.

Two of the smaller children picked the object up, and 16-year-old Jalil then realized that it was dangerous: an unexploded rocket from the battle. He tried to wrest it away from them, but in the tussle, it fell and exploded.

It was a cruel day, even by the standards of Afghanistan’s long war.

By nightfall, four were dead, including Jalil, who had tried to save them all and died at a hospital that night. One 4-year-old girl, Marwa, lost both her twin sister, Safwa, and their mother, Brekhna, who had been nearby making dung cakes for fuel. One of Brekhna’s nieces, a 6-year-old, was also killed in the blast.

Seven survivors — three brothers and four of their first cousins — were left to bear the weight of those losses, and more: Every one of them lost a leg, and two lost both.