By DPA
Kabul : Seven children were killed in an airstrike by the US-led coalition on a compound containing a mosque and a religious school in eastern Afghanistan that was also a suspected Al Qaeda safe house, the US military said Monday.
The coalition said intelligence indicated the terrorist network was using the compound in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, as a hideout and coalition forces called in an airstrike on it late Sunday.
Early reports said seven children at the religious school, or madrassa, were among the dead, the coalition stated, adding that several militants were also killed and two militants were detained in a joint Afghan-coalition operation in the Zarghun Shah district.
Residents confirmed to the troops that Al Qaeda fighters had been at the compound all day.
"This is another example of Al Qaeda using the protective status of a mosque as well as innocent civilians to shield themselves," US Army Major Chris Belcher charged.
The mosque received minor damage in the strike, the coalition said.
Civilian deaths have been a great matter of concern for the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
"We can no longer accept our civilian casualties," Karzai said last month, warning of consequences.
At least a quarter of the 4,000 people killed in fighting in 2006 were civilians, according to reports by human rights groups.
Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the conflict has only worsened this year and civilian casualties were growing.
Defence ministers of NATO, to which the US belongs and which leads the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, vowed Friday to take additional efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan. They added that innocent lives would inevitably be lost in the war between international forces and militants there.
Both NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Afghan Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Wardak said at the Brussels meeting that international and Afghan forces were doing their best to prevent civilian deaths but said insurgents were deliberately targeting civilians and using them as shields and hostages.