By DPA,
Kandahar: A roadside bomb explosion and a US airstrike killed 26 civilians in southern Afghanistan while six troops also died in fighting across the country, officials said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Thursday that a US soldier, serving under the banner of the alliance forces, was killed fighting the Taliban in western Afghanistan, while five police were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province.
The civilians killed in the first attack were on their way to a wedding in the Darwaishan area of Garmsir in the southern province of Helmand Wednesday, Assadullah Sherzad, the provincial police chief said.
Sherzad held militants with the Islamic extremist Taliban, who are most active in Helmand, responsible for the attack.
The Afghan Defence Ministry also confirmed the blast, saying in a statement that the attack once again showed the intentions of “terrorists” towards the Afghan people.
Afghan civilians have been the main victims of Taliban-led attacks and fighting between insurgents and international forces.
In the latest incident of civilian deaths at the hand of international forces, five farmers were killed by a US military airstrike Wednesday, according to Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, district governor of Zherai in southern Kandahar province.
“The farmers were loading cucumbers on a truck when the American forces hit them from their aircraft,” Sarhadi said, claiming that he had gone to the scene and saw no weapons.
A US military spokeswoman confirmed the attack, but said the men were insurgents spotted loading ammunition on a truck. She said the incident was under investigation.
Civilian deaths have long been a source of tension between the government of Hamid Karzai and NATO forces. Karzai has repeatedly warned the alliance of failure in the fight against terrorism if the killing of civilians continued.
NATO’s new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who came to Kabul on a two-day visit Wednesday, told a press conference that the alliance forces would do their “utmost to reduce the number of civilian casualties to an absolute minimum.”
“We cannot accept the loss of innocent life,” Rasmussen said, adding: “Unfortunately in an armed struggle we will see civilian casualties.”
Meanwhile, five Afghan police were killed and three others wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Nad Ali district of Helmand province Thursday morning, Helmand police chief Sherzad said.
In another incident, a US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb explosion in western Afghanistan Wednesday, the NATO said in a statement.
More than 100,000 international troops deployed from 42 nations are currently stationed in Afghanistan. Over 60,000 of that number are US soldiers.