Residents of a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan said today that dozens of civilians including women and children had been killed in aerial bombing.
British and American forces confirmed there had been fighting in the area but the British denied any air strikes occurred there late on Saturday, while the US military was making checks.
There was no way of independently verifying the accounts.
The strike late on Saturday hit several villages in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, a long-time bastion for Taliban guerrillas and the biggest drug-producing region of Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of heroin, residents said.
At least six wounded civilians were brought to a hospital in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand.
They belonged to the family of Ghulam Mohammad and included three men, two women and a child, said Rahmatullah Hanafi, the head of Emergency hospital where the group was treated.
He said all had shrapnel wounds and one of the women was in a critical condition.
Mohammad said eight of his family members, including children, were also killed in the attack, which he said went on for several hours.