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| Victims of ISAF Bombing |
KANDAHAR: A Nato Air Strike had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, during operation against insurgents according to Afghan authorities said Sunday.
In the southern province of Helmand, local authorities said at least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed and six injured in an air raid Saturday.
US Marines in Helmand’s Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement.
“During the air strike, two civilian houses were targeted which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded,” it said.
The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women.
“ISAF are aware of the reports that civilians were allegedly killed in an ISAF air strike,” Major Tim James, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, told AFP.
Aslam, a local elder of Nawzad district, told AFP he “lost 12 relatives while 10 others including children were injured” in the air strike.
Separately the governor of Nuristan on Sunday told AFP that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by “friendly fire” during US-led air strikes against insurgents in his troubled northeastern province.
Nuristan was the scene of heavy battles last week between the Taliban and Afghan security forces. The police and civilians were targeted Wednesday after they were mistaken for militants, Jamaluddin Badr said.
