Women, children killed in Afghan raid: local officials
04 February, 2008
HEART: Raids by Afghan and NATO troops against Taliban insurgents in southern and southwestern Afghanistan killed several civilians, among them children, local officials said Monday.
Ten people were killed in southwestern Farah province and two others were killed in southern Helmand province, they said. Authorities from Farah gave conflicting figures for the number of civilians killed.
The strike in Farah late Sunday, involving ground and air forces, took place in Bakwa district, which has seen a series of attacks by fighters with the Taliban movement, in government between 1996 and 2001.
The governor of Bakwa district said that two women and three children were among the dead and only one Taliban fighter was killed.
"A Taliban commander had been invited to the house," said Khan Agha. "In the operation nine people were killed, which includes two women and three kids." The rest were men.
But provincial governor Ghulam Mohaidun Balouch said that out of 10 people killed in the raid on a Taliban "cell" most were rebels.
"Among the 10, eight are Taliban plus the wife of the commander and his child," he said. Balouch said Italian NATO troops, who are based in the nearby province of Herat, were involved but this was not immediately confirmed by the alliance`s International Security Assistance Force.
Meanwhile, NATO-led troops raided a civilian house overnight in Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand province, killing a man and a child, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said.
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