Afghanistan says 17 civilians killed in fighting
Western military officials confirm an airstrike in the country's south, but say there is no evidence noncombatants were killed.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- With public anger running high over alleged civilian deaths in airstrikes by Western forces, Afghan authorities said today that at least 17 civilians had been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan.
The NATO-led force said in a statement it was investigating the reports, but that there was no evidence so far that any noncombatants had been killed in clashes over the previous two days in Helmand province. Western military officials confirmed, however, that an airstrike had been carried out in the area.
Details about the reported deaths were emerging slowly -- a common pattern in remote areas with poor communications, where many of the daily confrontations between insurgents and Western forces take place.
Fighting has also been heavy in eastern Afghanistan, where most of the American troops in the country serve. Provincial officials in Kunar province said today that 18 insurgents were killed in fighting in the previous 24 hours.
In Helmand province, local officials said the civilian deaths occurred in an airstrike Thursday in the Nad Ali district, which was briefly overrun last week by Taliban fighters, then retaken by Western forces.
Helmand is a pivotal battleground in NATO's fight against the insurgents. It produces the majority of the world's opium and is the base for a major concentration of Taliban fighters. About 8,000 British troops are stationed in the province, but Helmand's sheer size forces them to deploy thinly in some areas.
Civilian deaths have contributed to the growing unpopularity of President Hamid Karzai's government, even though the Afghan leader has pleaded publicly with Western troops to take greater care to avoid killing and injuring civilians.
The circumstances surrounding the latest reported civilian deaths were murky. Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand governor's office, said the bodies of 17 civilians, including women and children, were recovered from the rubble of a walled compound.
Ahmadi said, however, that it had not been established whether a Western airstrike or "insurgent action" had destroyed the compound.
Villagers from Nad Ali made the arduous six-mile trek to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, bringing more than a dozen bodies to the governor's home in protest.
Lashkar Gah, a city of about 85,000 people, has been extremely tense over the last week after insurgents massed on the outskirts of the town and made two attempts to overrun it. Both efforts were repulsed by North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Afghan forces.
