Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 25 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians after an ambush in southern Afghanistan today.
The issue of civilian casualties has led to a rift between Afghanistan and its Western allies. President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that foreign airstrikes had only succeeded in killing ordinary Afghans and would not defeat the insurgency.
The Taliban launched multiple ambushes on a patrol in the Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province yesterday, according to the US military.
The militants "then fled into a neighbouring compound where they held 11 non-combatants hostage, including several children and an infant," it said.
The insurgents then fired on the coalition forces from the compound and the troops called in an airstrike, but the statement said they did not know there were civilians in the building.
Reuters