Deaths of Afghan civilians and police probed

Military are probing two clashes in which Afghan civilians and police may have been killed by US-led coalition forces, authorities said yesterday.

The US military launched an inquiry into Saturday's deaths of seven Afghan civilians after US forces using aircraft and artillery battled militants in a house and a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province.

The Canadian-led military in the southern Kandahar Province also said it was investigating whether "friendly fire" was responsible for casualties sustained by Afghan police during fierce fighting on Friday against Taliban forces.

Afghan said 41 Taliban militants and six Afghan police were killed during the fighting in Sangisar, 40km southwest of Kandahar City.

It was the bloodiest battle in a recent upsurge in rebel attacks that threatens the government's shaky grip on the country, four-and-a-half years after the fall of the Taliban.

The government has previously complained about heavy-handed tactics by US-led forces, and the swift announcement of probes into the deaths appear to reflect greater openness on the part of the coalition, which says its forces go to extreme lengths to avoid innocent casualties.

Saturday's clash in Kunar Province's Korangal Valley came during an ongoing operation involving 2,500 Afghan and coalition forces to flush out Taliban-led militants, one of the biggest offensives since the Taliban's ouster for hosting Osama bin Laden.

The US military said about eight to 10 militants fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades at US forces, who returned fire and called in support from warplanes and artillery.

It said several Taliban forces were killed and others were taking shelter in a house and nearby cave where civilians were living.

"Our surveillance indicated that there was a house with a cave nearby and that the insurgents were going back and forth between both, so we suppressed the area with a combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire," US military spokesman Major Matt Hackathorn said.

"But once we realized there were civilians in the area, we ceased fire," he said.