An air strike by foreign-led forces killed 25 civilians, including 12 members of a family, and 20 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, a police chief said today.
Helmand provincial police chief Hussien Andiwal said the raid took place last night as part of an operation against Taliban fighters by foreign forces and Afghan troops.
Map of Afghanistan locating Girishk district where 25 civilians and 20 Taliban fighters were killed by a foreign-led airstrike.
A spokesman for the US military said he had no immediate comment on the incident, but NATO -- which runs a separate force under overall US command -- said it carried out the air strike after alliance forces came under attack by insurgents.
"We are concerned about reports that some civilians may have lost their lives during this attack," said Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Smith, a NATO spokesman.
"However, it must be noted that it was insurgents who initiated this attack, and in choosing to conduct such attacks in this location and at the time, the risk to civilians was probably deliberate."
The strike occurred in Girishk district of Helmand, a long-time bastion for the Taliban and the leading drug producing province of Afghanistan, the world's major heroin supplier.
"Nine women and three children have been killed in one family in the bombardment," Andiwal said.
He later said 25 civilians had been killed in the raid as several houses in another part of the small village were also hit.