Airstrikes kill scores of Afghan civilians: officials

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO and U.S. airstrikes have killed scores of Afghan civilians this week, residents and officials said on Saturday, deaths likely to deepen discontent with foreign forces and the Western-backed Afghan government.

NATO-led and U.S. forces said there were heavy clashes in Farah province in western Afghanistan and Kunar province in the east, and that troops in both places had called for air support.

Several residents and the head of a district council in Farah said an air attack in the Bala Boluk area had killed 108 civilians.

"Women and children have been killed and 13 houses destroyed," said Bala Boluk council head Haji Khudairam. "In the bombing, in total, 108 civilians have been killed."

"We are asking the government to send a delegation to see for itself the civilian deaths," said Faizullah, a resident.

The governor and police chief for Farah province both declined to confirm or deny the reports of civilian deaths.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the separate U.S. force in Afghanistan to coordinate more closely with his troops to curb a spate of civilian deaths from airstrikes.

But Western unwillingness to accept casualties among their own soldiers and a shortage of ground troops means commanders often turn to air power to beat the Taliban, and that almost inevitably leads to civilians deaths, military analysts say.

Casualties are also boosting Taliban numbers, analysts say.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Afghan troops backed by coalition soldiers defeated an attempted Taliban ambush in Farah on Saturday, a U.S. statement said. The troops "killed over 30 insurgent fighters with accurate small arms fire and precision air strikes", it said.

"All fires were directed by the ground force commander who carefully evaluated risk of collateral damage against the military necessity," the statement said.

Eleven Afghan police were also killed in the fighting in Farah, said a provincial official who declined to be named.

Residents of Kunar and provincial officials said airstrikes there killed three dozen civilians.

Eleven civilians, including nine family members of a man called Mohammad Nabi, were killed in an airstrike on Thursday after two U.S.-led troops were killed in a clash with the Taliban, residents and officials said.