US-led coalition troops battling suspected militants in southern Afghanistan killed 15 militants as well as a woman and two children in a grenade attack.
The troops were raiding compounds suspected of housing bomb makers in the Garmser district of Helmand province yesterday when militants attacked them with heavy fire, a coalition statement said statement said.
Civilian casualties have incited resentment and demonstrations against US and Nato forces in the past, though officials blame militants for using civilian homes as cover during clashes.
President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths.
More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence this year, a record, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.
AP