Six children, three NATO troops killed in Afghanistan

KABUL - Six children were killed in a NATO air raid in eastern Afghanistan and three coalition soldiers were killed in Taliban attacks, officials said Friday.

“Six children were killed by NATO warplanes in Kunur province Thursday while they were collecting scrap metal in a mountainous area when aircraft dropped bombs,” provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said.

The alliance said it was investigating allegations of civilian casualties. A statement issued by NATO Friday said that four insurgents were killed when its forces came under insurgent fire in Darah-ye Pech, a district in the province.

“We take allegations of civilian casualties seriously; we’re investigating to find out what happened,” James Dawkins, an alliance spokesman, said.

NATO forces in Afghanistan have been responsible for civilian deaths, mostly at night and in air raids during fighting with Taliban insurgents.

Civilian casualties are highly a sensitive issue in the country and have undermined support for the Western-backed Afghan government.

Two NATO troops were killed following an insurgent attack in the east of the country Friday, while another soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the south, an alliance statement said without revealing the nationalities of the deceased.

Roadside bombs are the weapon of choice in the Taliban insurgency, and have claimed the most fatalities among Western troops.

Some 465 international troops have been killed this year in Afghanistan, according to iCasualties.org, an independent website that tracks military deaths.