KABUL, Afghanistan — The men came back to the mud house, sitting down for lunch and shared grief on Sunday. They had just returned from burying a relative — a police officer who had been killed the night before during a Taliban raid on the local checkpoint.

From outside, there were the happy sounds of young children playing cricket. And then an explosion. The men rushed outside to find five children — cousins 10 years old or younger — killed by a piece of stray ordnance they had stumbled on.

“When I came outside, I saw all the children lying around — some of them had hands missing, some head, some feet,” said Malay Khan, 31, who lost two of his six children in the explosion, in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman. “My one son, Nawab, was hit in the eye and in his stomach, and in the head. I buried them at 5 p.m.”

Mohammed Nawab was 7, and his brother Mohammed Malyar was 6. Their cousins were Muhammad Zaher, 7; Zarylai, 8; and another Malyar, 10.