'Eight Afghan civilians killed' in air strike

07/08/2011| IslamWeb

Afghan civilians may have been caught up in a NATO air strike against suspected Taliban fighters, a foreign military spokesman said Saturday, amid claims up to eight civilians died.

A local official said that an imam, his wife and their six children were killed by an air strike in Nad Ali district in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on Friday.

The incident appears to be the latest in which Afghan civilians have been killed by NATO military operations. The issue is highly sensitive in Afghanistan after nearly ten years of war.

Explaining what happened, district governor Shadi Khan said: "A group of Taliban attacked a foot patrol of NATO forces.

"Subsequently, an air strike targeted the house of an imam of a mosque in the area. As a result the imam, his wife and six of their children were killed."

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said foreign troops had been to discuss the incident with local elders.

Helmand provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said he was "aware that there have been some civilian casualties as a result of a NATO air strike in Nad Ali district" and that an official delegation had been dispatched to investigate.

PHOTO CAPTION

NATO soldiers walk to a military helicopter near the Pimon military camp in Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province in 2010.

Agencies