A pre-dawn NATO airstrike killed 17 civilians, including women and children, in central Logar province, officials said on Wednesday.
The air raid was conducted at 1:00 am in the Sajawand area on the periphery of Baraki Barak district, said the district chief.
Syed Wakil Agha told Pajhwok Afghan News that coalition forces carried out the attack on a tribal elder’s residence, which resulted in the tragedy.
He said besides killing the tribal elder and his family members, some other residents in the area were also killed in the pre-dawn attack.
Dr. Abdul Wali Wakil, head of the provincial council, confirmed the attack, saying victim Bashir Akhundzada the tribal elder was among 16 civilians killed in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) air raid.
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He added the local people paraded the dead bodies to demonstrate in front of the governor’s office to prove the victims were ordinary civilians and not insurgents.
However, police said that a Taliban commander known as Qari Sardari, along with civilians were killed in the incident.
Taliban denied that their commander was killed. Their spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said all the victims were civilians.
Meanwhile, ISAF in a statement said Afghan and coalition forces
conducted an operation to detain a Taliban leader in Baraki Barak
district, Logar province.
During the operation insurgents attacked the security force. The force returned fire and requested a precision airstrike.
During the follow-on assessment, security forces discovered two women with non-life-threatening injuries, said ISAF.
However, ISAF statement did not mention about civilian deaths in the attack.
Meanwhile, a Taliban fighter attacked a convoy of private security guards in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Wednesday.
It is not clear whether he was in a car or on a motorcycle when he detonated his explosives. The attack happened around 11:15am near Kandahar Air Field - a Nato-run military base, according to Kandahar provincial spokesman Jawid Fasal.
According to latest reports at least 21 people were killed and 22 others wounded, local officials said. And police said that all the casualties were workers who work in or near the base.