Afghan villagers claim 40 civilians killed in clashes

Fresh airstrikes in a volatile southern Afghan region killed up to 10 Taliban fighters close to where villagers say about 40 civilians died during a battle earlier this week, and the US-led coalition said local Afghans feared more militant attacks.

Taliban fighters ambushed a patrol of US-led coalition and Afghan forces near Sangin in Helmand province Thursday evening, and gunfire and airstrikes killed 10 militants, said Eizatullah Khan, the Sangin district chief.

A coalition spokesman, Sgt 1st Class Dean Welch, put the toll at six Taliban killed. He had no further details. Two villagers from Sangin said they knew of no civilian casualties caused by the fight.

Airstrikes called in by US Special Forces fighting some 200 Taliban militants north of Sangin on Tuesday killed 21 civilians, government officials said, while villagers said nearly 40 civilians were killed.

The US-led coalition confirmed that the battle caused civilian casualties, killing at least one child, and that a joint Afghan-US team would investigate.

Gen Dan McNeill, the top Nato commander in Afghanistan, told NPR News’ Morning Edition that “it does appear there were civilian casualties” but that it wasn’t clear what caused them. He said it was likely the Taliban militants had been firing on coalition forces from civilian homes.

Elsewhere, the Taliban released French aid worker Eric Damfreville of Terre d’Enfance after five weeks in captivity, and the militant group credited the release to comments by France’s President-elect Nicholas Sarkozy that French troops would eventually leave Afghanistan.

Damfreville was kidnapped with a female colleague and three Afghans on April 3. The female worker was released late last month. There was no word on the fate of the Afghans.

The US-led coalition said villagers around Sangin reported detaining 15 Taliban fighters today. The coalition said villagers “have become angered with Taliban enemy fighters due to the aftermath of the battle” on Tuesday and that they fear retaliation from Taliban.

Haji Pir Mohammad, a villager from Soro, said 37 people were killed and 21 wounded after aircraft bombed four civilian homes Tuesday. He said 12 family members were killed in one home. Another villager, Mohammad Asif, said earlier this week that 38 civilians died in the airstrikes.

Khan, the Sangin district chief, said he did not think the death toll was that high.

“There are always people who will say that 40 or 60 people were killed, but the civilian toll appears to be around 20,” said Khan.

Death tolls in remote battle sites in Afghanistan are nearly impossible to verify.

The battle in Sangin was the third incident involving US Special Forces that resulted in civilian deaths since March, sparking outrage among Afghans and a warning from President Hamid Karzai that such incidents can no longer be tolerated.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, which is tasked with counterinsurgency operations, has stressed that its forces were not involved in the incidents. The US-led coalition, which commands US Special Forces units, is tasked with counterterrorism.

“We have different missions, different mandates,” said Lt. Col. Maria Carl, a spokeswoman for Nato’s ISAF. “Many of the ISAF troop-contributing countries are not part of the counterterrorism mission.”

In March US Marines Special Forces fired on civilians after a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan, killing 19 civilians and wounding 50. Fighting late last month killed some 50 civilians in the western province of Herat, Afghan and UN officials say.

The upper house of the Afghan parliament this week passed a resolution calling for a halt to military action by international troops unless co-ordinated with the Afghan government, and for negotiations with Afghan Taliban fighters.

NATO spokesman Nicholas Lunt this week said negotiations should be encouraged if armed groups are prepared to follow Afghanistan’s laws and constitution.

McNeil told NPR that a cease-fire agreed to in the village of Musa Qala in Helmand province last year “in its best case it might have been a tactful error, in its worst case, might have been a strategic blunder.”

He said future agreements or negotiations were possible, but that “you’d have to have the right conditions.”

Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, Taliban militants attacked two police checkpoints on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway in Zabul province, and 17 police were missing, said Ghulam Rabani, the deputy provincial police chief.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said the fighters had kidnapped four police.

In the east, a suicide or roadside bomb wounded two US troops and damaged two vehicles, said Ghamia Khan, a spokesman for Paktika province’s governor. Welch said the injuries were minor.