US-led coalition forces killed 76
Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan yesterday, most of them
children, the country’s 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, undermining
support for their presence.

“Seventy-six civilians, most of them
women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation
in Herat province,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Coalition
forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat
province on Friday 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.

US-led coalition forces denied killing any
civilians. They said 30 militants had been killed in an air strike in
Shindand district in the early hours of Friday and no further air
strikes had been launched in the area later in the day.

Air
strikes took place after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed by
insurgents while on a patrol targeting a known Taliban commander in
Herat, the US military said in a statement.

“Insurgents engaged
the soldiers from multiple points within the compound using small-arms
and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire,” it said. “The joint forces
responded with small-arms fire and an air strike killing 30 militants.”

A senior police commander in western Afghanistan confirmed the incident but could not say how many civilians died.

“More than 30 people have been killed. I cannot say how many of them are civilians,” General Ikramuddin Yawar told Reuters.

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 General Zaher Azimi.

“Unfortunately, five civilians were killed in the bombing.”

Afghanistan
has seen a surge in violence this year as the Taliban steps up its
campaign of guerrilla attacks, backed by suicide and roadside bombs, to
overthrow the pro-western Afghan government and drive out foreign
troops.

Meanwhile, soldiers from the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force (Isaf) fired artillery rounds into Pakistan
from the eastern province of Paktika yesterday in a coordinated attack
with the Pakistani military, the Isaf said.

The rounds were fired
at militants across the border who the Pakistani military said were
preparing to fire rockets at an Isaf base in Paktika, Isaf said in a
statement.