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About 25 people may have been killed in a NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan on Monday, an Afghan official said.
NATO officials confirmed there had been an air strike in Helmand province but said initial reports indicated that there were "no civilian casualties". The coalition was continuing to look into the operation, the officials said.
The head of Helmand's provincial council, Fazal Bari, said local officials had told him that 25 people had been killed but that the casualty figures could rise because many bodies were still buried in the rubble.
He said the dead were inside a mosque in Baghran district, but NATO says it has no reports of a mosque being struck. Baghran is the northernmost district in Helmand, about 100 miles north of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
"Denial"
NATO-led ISAF denied the reports on Monday.
Afghan and ISAF forces killed four fighters in clashes during an initial raid in southern Helmand province and later called in air strikes, killing 11 more fighters as they approached in vehicles, ISAF said, according to Reuters news agency.
U.S. Captain Ryan Donald, a spokesman for the NATO Force, said he had heard allegations of civilian casualties but they had not been backed up by reports.
Six fighters were also detained, ISAF said. It was not clear if the commander who was the target of the raid was among the dead or prisoners.
A spokesman for the provincial governor said initial reports showed up to 25 fighters may have died, including two Taliban commanders.
Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand, said initial reports from intelligence officials showed up to 25 fighters were killed, including two commanders.
It was impossible to immediately clarify the vast discrepancies between NATO's account and the local Afghan's claims as to who was killed in the violence.
PHOTO CAPTION
US soldiers patrol on the outskirts of Kandahar City, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 25, 2010
Agencies
