AT LEAST 13 civilians and police officers have been killed in two clashes involving Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Nato said its forces accidentally killed at least four civilians in clashes in eastern Afghanistan, while an official in the west of the country said foreign troops used air strikes against Afghan police, killing nine.
The reported civilian an
d police deaths could damage popular support for the Afghan government as well as for foreign forces operating here.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has pleaded with the US and other nations fighting resurgent militants to avoid civilian casualties.
Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating whether three other civilians were also killed on Saturday night in the Barmal district of Paktika province when its troops fired two mortar rounds that landed nearly half a mile short of their target.
The alliance said it was providing medical aid to four civilians who were wounded.
"ISAF deeply regrets this accident, and an investigation as to the exact circumstances of this tragic event is now under way," it said in a statement.
On the other side of the country, in Farah province, a convoy of foreign forces showed up in Anar Dara district near the Iranian border and clashed with Afghan police, killing nine of them, said provincial deputy governor Younus Rasuli.
He said the foreign troops had not informed local officials they were coming, and the police thought they were enemy.
The two sides fought from about midnight until 4am yesterday, and the foreign forces used air strikes, Mr Rasuli said.
The US-led coalition said it was investigating the report. It said its forces, along with Afghan troops, had retaliated in defence against "a non-uniformed hostile force."
"The combined patrol signalled their status as coalition forces, but continued to receive fire," a military statement said. "Coalition forces then returned small arms fire and engaged the enemy with precision close air support."
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a mine exploded under a civilian vehicle in Gereshk district in the southern province of Helmand yesterday, killing three children and wounding four other people, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.
Mr Andiwal accused Taleban militants of planting the mine on a road frequently used by Afghan and foreign troops.
On Saturday, militants attacked a police checkpoint in the same district but in the ensuing gunfight three Taleban fighters were killed, Mr Andiwal said, adding that no police officers were injured in that clash.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence said that Afghan troops battled insurgents in the southern Kandahar province on Saturday, killing 18 militants, wounding 25 and arresting 15 others.
In neighbouring Zabul province, Afghan troops killed nine militants and wounded seven others, the ministry said in a statement. Neither claim could be independently verified.
Afghanistan faces intensifying militancy nearly seven years after the US-led invasion of the country ousted the Taleban movement from power.
More than 2,500 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year in the country, according to official figures.
Most have been militants, but the total includes hundreds of ordinary citizens.
Commanders accuse insurgents of launching attacks from residential areas and by carrying out suicide attacks that kill far more bystanders than security personnel.
The full article contains 549 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
