Nato strike on 'Taleban targets' kills seven civilians, claims Afghan governor

A NATO air strike on two vehicles believed to be carrying Taleban fighters in southern Afghanistan accidentally killed seven civilians and wounded five more, an Afghan official said yesterday.

The international alliance said it was investigating the incident, which took place on Friday in the Naw Zad district of Helmand. The helicopter air strike followed intelligence reports that suggested a Taleban leader and his associates were in the vehicles, Nato said.

In the aftermath, coalition troops found the bodies of civilians in the wreckage, Nato said. It did not release the number of dead and wounded. However, a statement from Helmand governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal said seven people - two men, two women and three children - had been killed. They were in another vehicle travelling near those targeted. Five others Afghan civilians - a man, woman and three children - were wounded, his statement said.

At least four other people were killed in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Friday, including a child, a Nato soldier, and two civilians on a motorcycle.

The child was killed in a bomb attack outside the home of a high-ranking Afghan border police officer in Kandahar, according to the Afghan interior ministry. The bomber himself was injured in the attack and is in critical condition, Afghan police said. Four other people were also wounded in the explosion, police said.

A coalition soldier died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, Nato announced. Again, the international force provided no other details about the casualty. The death brings to 26 of Nato service personnel who have died so far this month in Afghanistan.

Also on Friday, two civilians riding on a motorcycle were killed by a roadside explosive in the southern province of Zabul.

Suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices killed at least 1,141 Afghan civilians in the conflict in 2010, according to the United Nations.

Nato and US troops have been attempting to pacify the south of the country, the heartland of the Taleban, amid fierce resistance.

Germany's defence minister Thomas de Maizire visited Afghanistan yesterday, his first trip to the battleground since taking the job this month. German lawmakers last week endorsed sending up to 300 crew members to man surveillance planes in Afghanistan.