Lashkargah, 5 Nov. (AKI) - Artillery and mortar shelling by the NATO-led international troops killed nine civilians including three children in southern Afghanistan, locals said, quoted by Afghan news agency Pajhwok on Thursday.
Afghan and NATO officials have claimed that only militants planting roadside bombs had been killed in a single surface-to-surface rocket strike on outskirts of Lashkargah, capital of the southern Helmand province late on Wednesday.
But the NATO-led force International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in statement on Friday said it was investigating claims that civilians had been killed - something that local people have demanded.
"ISAF takes all credible allegations of civilian casualties very seriously and investigates each allegation to determine the facts" said Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, IJC spokesperson.
"If any civilians were injured through our actions we deeply regret it."
People, who brought bodies of their slain relatives to Lashkargah, said the dead included three children and six men. They died as a mortar shell landed in a cornfield said the locals.
Haji Shah Muhammad, a tribal elder from Babaji area on the outskirts of the provincial capital, was cited as telling Pajhwok the victims were busy harvesting at the time of the strike.
"I lost four members of my family. They included my three sons and a son-in-law working in the fields" said another elder Syed Gul. The foreigners were intentionally targeting civilians, said Nisar Ahmad, a third resident of the area.
Nisar said Taliban were patrolling on motorbikes in the area in broad daylight but the foreign troops did not take any action against them.
Relatives of the victims also staged a protest demonstration against the foreign troops. They chanted anti-NATO slogans and demanded the withdrawal of international troops from the country.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, stated that only militants were killed in the overnight attack.
The civilian casualties in Helmand was reported just a day after the killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman in the province. The policeman managed to flee the scene.
Afghan and NATO officials have claimed that only militants planting roadside bombs had been killed in a single surface-to-surface rocket strike on outskirts of Lashkargah, capital of the southern Helmand province late on Wednesday.
But the NATO-led force International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in statement on Friday said it was investigating claims that civilians had been killed - something that local people have demanded.
"ISAF takes all credible allegations of civilian casualties very seriously and investigates each allegation to determine the facts" said Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, IJC spokesperson.
"If any civilians were injured through our actions we deeply regret it."
People, who brought bodies of their slain relatives to Lashkargah, said the dead included three children and six men. They died as a mortar shell landed in a cornfield said the locals.
Haji Shah Muhammad, a tribal elder from Babaji area on the outskirts of the provincial capital, was cited as telling Pajhwok the victims were busy harvesting at the time of the strike.
"I lost four members of my family. They included my three sons and a son-in-law working in the fields" said another elder Syed Gul. The foreigners were intentionally targeting civilians, said Nisar Ahmad, a third resident of the area.
Nisar said Taliban were patrolling on motorbikes in the area in broad daylight but the foreign troops did not take any action against them.
Relatives of the victims also staged a protest demonstration against the foreign troops. They chanted anti-NATO slogans and demanded the withdrawal of international troops from the country.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, stated that only militants were killed in the overnight attack.
The civilian casualties in Helmand was reported just a day after the killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman in the province. The policeman managed to flee the scene.
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