Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday accused NATO-led international forces of killing up to seven civilians, most of them children, in an airstrike in the south.
The incident happened late on Wednesday in Zhari District in Kandahar Province, a traditional Taliban stronghold where NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops claim significant progress in recent months.
The Kandahar governor’s office said the airstrike was aimed against insurgents who were planting mines, but they then fled into a village, where ISAF forces pursued them and struck.
The ISAF in Kabul acknowledged that the “unfortunate” incident had involved “several civilians being killed and injured” and said it came in response to insurgent action.
It has launched an inquiry into what happened.
The issue of civilian casualties in airstrikes is highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has fueled tensions between Karzai and his Western backers.
Karzai’s office issued a statement saying he “strongly condemned” the strike, which it said killed seven people, including six children, as well as injuring two young girls.
The president has also tasked a team with investigating the incident.
Zhari District Governor Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi said the strike was aimed at Taliban fighters planting roadside mines in the area, but missed its target and hit residential areas nearby.
However, the governor’s office in Kandahar gave a slightly different explanation.
It said that two insurgents had been killed in an airstrike, “while the three remaining fled and hid themselves among civilian houses.”
“The ISAF aircraft pursued the three remaining insurgents and dropped bombs on a road where they were hiding but as a result, six children were killed and three others were injured,” it added.
ISAF commanders say the Taliban and other insurgents frequently hide among the local population in a bid to protect themselves.
However, ISAF forces are supposed to take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties.
The US general who commands ISAF troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, wrote in July that he expected “every member of ISAF to be seized with the intent to eliminate civilian casualties caused by ISAF.”
Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq said three Taliban had died out of a total death toll of nine, while investigations were continuing to ascertain the identity of the others.
News of the incident came as at least 10 Afghan security guards were killed on Thursday in a Taliban ambush on a logistics convoy destined for NATO forces in the country’s west.
The guards were securing the convoy when they came under attack in Bakwa District of Farah Province on the main highway connecting the west withe the volatile south, said Naqibullah Farahi, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Seven more guards were injured, while the militants also torched nine trucks carrying supplies, he said.
Police were hunting the attackers, according to Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, a spokesman for police in the west of the country.
Taliban militants frequently attack supply convoys as part of the insurgency they have been waging for the past 10 years.
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