Coalition forces deny killing Afghan civilians in air strike

AFGHANISTAN: US-led coalition forces killed 76 civilians in western Afghanistan yesterday, most of them children, the interior ministry said. The coalition denied killing civilians.

Civilian deaths in military operations have become an emotive issue among Afghans, many of whom feel international forces take too little care when launching air strikes.

"Seventy-six civilians, most of them women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation in Herat province," the ministry said.

Coalition forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand in Herat province in the afternoon, the ministry said. Nineteen of the victims were women, seven of them men and the rest children under the age of 15, it said.

Coalition forces said 30 militants had been killed in an air strike in Shindand district in the early hours of yesterday and no further air strikes had been launched.

Air strikes were called between 1am and 2am after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed while on a patrol targeting a known Taliban commander in Herat, the US military said.

"Insurgents engaged the soldiers from multiple points . . . using small-arms and [rocket-propelled grenades]," it said.

Saeed Sharif, an elder and member of a local council where the strike took place, said many civilians were killed. "Last night, around 2am some people were attending a holy Koran recitation in Shindand district when Americans started bombing. Tens of civilians were killed," said Mr Sharif.

A spokesman for the defence ministry in Kabul said US special forces and Afghan troops had been carrying out an operation against a commander named Mulla Sidiq, who was planning to attack a US base in Herat.

"Twenty-five Taliban were killed, including Sidiq and one other commander," said spokesman Gen Zaher Azimi.

© 2008 Reuters

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times