Afghanistan investigating civilian deaths

Authorities to examine the deaths of at least 17 civilians during a clash between Nato forces and militants.

KANDAHAR // Afghan authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 17 civilians during a clash between Nato forces and militants in southern Afghanistan, an official said today. Separately, a clash in the east allegedly killed 18 insurgents, a police chief said. Villagers and a senior police official claimed yesterday that a Nato airstrike killed the civilians, including women and children, in the Nad Ali district of the Helmand province. The Nato-led force in Afghanistan confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in the area yesterday but said it could not confirm that any civilians were killed as a result of their airstrike. The Nato spokesman Capt Mark Windsor said today that the force was seeking more information. He declined to make any further comment. Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand's governor, said today that authorities were investigating whether the airstrike or "insurgent action" caused the collapse of the house in which the civilians died. Angry villagers brought more than a dozen corpses - including the badly mangled bodies of women and children - to the governor's house in the town of Lashkar Gah yesterday, said Haji Adnan Khan, a tribal leader who had seen the bodies. Nad Ali, about 10km from Lashkar Gah, has been a scene of heavy fighting between insurgents and Afghan and foreign troops. Militants control much of the area around the village. The issue of civilian casualties at the hands of foreign troops has caused friction between the Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his Western backers. Mr Karzai has for years warned the US and Nato that it must stop killing civilians in its bombing runs or risk undermining his government and the international mission. In the most prominent recent incident, the Afghan government said that 90 civilians were killed during a US raid in western Herat province in August. A US military investigation found that 33 civilians died, and concluded that their troops acted in line with their rules of engagement. Western commanders point out that militants put civilians at risk by operating from residential areas. Innocents also bear the brunt of insurgent bombings and suicide attacks. Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,800 people - mostly militants - this year, according to a count of figures from Western and Afghan officials. A group that monitors the security of non-government organisations in Afghanistan said this week it estimated that 970 civilians had been killed in insurgent attacks this year, 373 in military action. The ousting of the Taliban government in 2001 led the war-torn country into a growing insurgency. In eastern Kunar province, meanwhile, a clash between Afghan forces and militants in Narang district late yesterday killed 18 insurgents, said Gen Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief. Gen Jalal said the insurgents had attacked an Afghan security checkpoint, sparking the clash. It was impossible to independently verify Gen Jalal's claim. Afghan officials are known to exaggerate their battlefield successes. *AP/AFP