Afghans report civilian toll in airstrikes

U.S. Special Forces fighting insurgents in southern Afghanistan called in airstrikes that killed at least 21 civilians, officials said Wednesday.

Helmand province Gov. Assadullah Wafa said the civilians died after Taliban combatants sought shelter in villagers’ homes during the fighting Tuesday evening in the Sangin district. He said several women and children were among the dead.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said more must be done to prevent civilian casualties. He warned last week, after reports that 51 civilians were killed in the west, that Afghanistan “can no longer accept civilian casualties the way they occur.”

Wednesday’s report of civilian casualties came one day after the U.S. military apologized and paid compensation to the families of 19 people killed and 50 wounded in March by Marine Special Forces in eastern Afghanistan.

Also on Tuesday, Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament passed a bill calling for a halt to international military operations unless coordinated with the Afghan government, action seen as a rebuke of the international mission here.

The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday that militants had fired guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds at U.S. Special Forces and Afghan soldiers on patrol 15 miles north of Sangin.

Maj. William Mitchell, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said troops killed a “significant” number of militants and added, “We don’t have any report of civilian casualties.”

The battle left one coalition soldier dead, the U.S. military said. The soldier’s nationality was not disclosed, but the casualty was probably American.

More than 200 Taliban fighters gathered during the 16-hour fight, said Maj. Chris Belcher, another coalition spokesman.

Death tolls in remote battle sites in Afghanistan are impossible to verify. Taliban fighters often seek shelter in Afghan homes, leading to civilian casualties, and it is often difficult to determine whether people killed in such airstrikes were militants or civilians.