NATO air strike kills Afghan civilians: local officials

KABUL: A NATO air strike left up to 12 civilians dead in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Tuesday, but the US-led foreign military said they had killed insurgents.

Troops targeted Taliban insurgents overnight in the Azra district of Logar province, south of the capital Kabul, officials said.

NATO called in air strikes on two houses where suspected insurgents had gathered for a meeting, district police chief Bakhtiar Gul said. "Twelve civilians, including women and children, were killed last night when NATO planes targeted two houses," he said, adding that the bodies of four Taliban insurgents had been recovered from the rubble.

But provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said only that an "unknown" number of civilians were killed, along with seven Taliban.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they had killed "numerous" insurgents in the strike. ISAF spokesman Justin Brockho said troops were hunting a Taliban commander in the district when they came under fire and called in an air strike.

"Last night combined Afghan and coalition forces killed numerous insurgents during an operation in the Azra district of Logar province," he said.