Governor says NATO, Afghan forces kill 64 civilians

Joint operations by Afghan forces and NATO-led foreign troops have killed 64 civilians in eastern Kunar Province, including many women and children, over the past four days, the provincial governor said.

"They were killed by ground and air strikes in Ghazi Abad district," Fazlullah Wahidi, governor of Kunar Province, told Reuters Sunday.

Wahidi said 20 of the dead were women, 29 were children or young adults aged 7 to 20, and the remaining 15 were adult men.

Civilian casualties in NATO-led military operations, often caused by air strikes and night raids, have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western partners.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they were investigating media reports that seven civilians may have been wounded in operations in Kunar, but the ISAF said it was not aware of any reports of civilian deaths.

ISAF also said Friday that more than 30 insurgents had been killed in an overnight mission in Kunar.

Reuters