Sunday, September 16, 2012

NATO denies civilians killed in air strike

  • NATO says it hit insurgents, not civilians
  • ISAF has been working for years to tackle civilian casualties

(CNN) -- Afghan officials said seven women were killed and seven more wounded in a coalition airstrike Sunday morning, but NATO officials denied the claims.

Afghan official Abdul Khaliq Husaine said women normally go out to collect wood in the night, and that they came under attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The incident took place in the Alingar district of eastern Afghanistan's Laghman province, he said.

Sarhadi Zwak, a provincial spokesman, also said civilians had been killed in an airstrike in the area, but did not have exact numbers.

But a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the strike was against "a large group of insurgents" in the province, east of the capital Kabul.

ISAF identified the group of about 45 as hostile, and attacked with "precision munitions and direct fire," said spokesman James Graybeal.

The strikes "killed a large number of the insurgents and forced the group to depart," he said.

"ISAF is aware of only insurgents killed, and has no operational reporting of any civilian casualties," he said, adding that the alliance would continue to monitor the situation.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said the strike killed more than 20 civilians, and condemned the attack. The Taliban frequently exaggerates death tolls.

Civilian casualties in the war between coalition forces and militants have generated grass-roots anger toward the combatants, and ISAF has been working for years to tackle the problem

CNN's Ab Qadir Sediqi and Jessica King contributed to this report.