By SPA,
Kabul, Afghanistan : A series of clashes and an airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed 25 militants and eight civilians held hostage by insurgents, the U.S.-led
coalition said in a statement Monday.
Militants ambushed the coalition and Afghan troops along a road in the southern province of Uruzgan on Sunday, triggering gunbattles during which militants moved into a compound and took 11 civilians hostage, the statement said.
Coalition troops called in close-air support to engage the militants hiding in the structure. They did not have knowledge of noncombatants in the buildings at that time,
the coalition statement said.
As a result, eight civilians were killed and three were wounded, the coalition said.
The wounded civilians were taken to a coalition base for treatment, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a coalition spokesman, said three civilian hostages survived the airstrike in Khas Uruzgan district, including an infant, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s.