Seven Afghan civilians killed in NATO air strike

KABUL: Seven civilians, three of them children, were killed and five others wounded in a NATO air strike targeting insurgents in restive southern Afghanistan, a local official said Saturday.

The governor of Helmand province said the two men, two women and three children died when the car they were travelling in was hit by NATO fire late Friday.

Earlier, NATO said its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) called in an air strike on two vehicles believed to be carrying a Taliban leader and his associates, but later discovered they were transporting civilians.

"ISAF forces fired on a vehicle carrying insurgents," said a statement from Helmand governor Muhammad Gulab Mangal's office.

"The explosion hit another vehicle in which civilians were travelling, and as a result two men, two women and three children were killed and a man, a woman and three other children were wounded."

NATO said it had launched an investigation into the incident, which came after nine people -- who Afghan officials said were children collecting firewood -- were killed in a NATO airstrike in eastern Kunar province this month.

Civilian casualties in military operations are highly sensitive in Afghanistan as coalition troops battle to curb a Taliban-led insurgency ahead of a planned handover of security to Afghan forces.

The Kunar strike unleashed public fury, leading the US troop commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, to issue a rare public apology.(AFP)