Insurgents pulled four Afghan civilians off a minibus travelling in the east of the country, shot them dead and left their bodies on the side of the road, officials said Wednesday.

Villagers reported Tuesday's attack in Jalrez district to the police who then recovered the bodies, said Wardak provincial government spokesman Shahidullah Shahid. It was the second such shooting in the district in two weeks. Last week, four Afghan security guards were pulled out of a vehicle and killed in the same way, execution-style.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence from the long-running Afghan conflict.

According to the United Nations, last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed. The number of civilian deaths dropped 36 percent in the first four months of this year compared with last year, but the U.N. says much of that is probably tied to a particularly severe winter that decreased fighting overall.