100 Taliban believed killed in strike: Afghan government

KABUL: The Afghan government said on Saturday it believed more than 100 Taliban may have been killed in an air strike in the south of the country and did not rule out civilian casualties.

But General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, rejected some media reports that scores of civilians were killed or wounded in the US-led coalition strike on Thursday in Helmand province.

Azimi said it was unclear how many people had been killed in the attack on a large gathering of Taliban.

"But the enemy casualty is very high," he said in the capital, Kabul.

"There might be more than 100 killed."

Hospitals in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and in the nearby city of Kandahar, said yesterday that nearly 40 civilians had been brought in for treatment.

But Azimi questioned this figure, saying, "Even if there were civilians, there were very few of them. Their number would not reach 10."

He added, "How can you distinguish when someone is a civilian or not? When he has his gun laid on the ground, he's a civilian but when he has it on his shoulder, he is not?"

The area had been under aerial surveillance for more than 24 hours before the strike, Azimi said, and images showed there were no women or children in the group.

But hospital officials said on Friday that at least two children had been treated for wounds sustained in the strike.