Nato Afghanistan Kunar air strike 'kills nine'

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At least nine civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a Nato air strike in Kunar province in Afghanistan, officials say.

Three Taliban commanders were also said to have died in the attack.

The Nato-led Isaf force said it was aware of the reports of civilian deaths and was "looking into the circumstances" of the incident.

"We take every allegation of civilian casualties very seriously," Isaf said on its Twitter feed.

"It is possible that those killed inside the house were family members of Taliban commanders or that Taliban commanders were taking refuge there," an Afghan government official told the BBC.

The strike took place in the Shegal district of Kunar, a province in the east of Afghanistan that borders Pakistan.

Last year a US drone attack killed Mullah Dadullah, a high-ranking Pakistani Taliban commander, in the same area.

Wednesday's strike came hours after US President Barack Obama confirmed plans for the withdrawal of roughly half of the 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan by early 2014.

The issue of civilian deaths caused by Nato strikes has been one of the greatest sources of tension between the US and Afghan officials, with President Hamid Karzai frequently speaking out in anger over deaths.

Earlier this month a UN report accused the US of killing hundreds of children in air strikes over the past four years.

The number of child casualties had doubled in 2010-2011 due to a "lack of precautionary measures and use of indiscriminate force", the study found.

Isaf called the claims "categorically unfounded" and "false".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21439830