Xinhua, July 8, 2009

Air raids kill 8 Afghans in S Afghanistan

The victims, he added, include two women, two children and four men.

Air raids against suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in Ghazni province, south of Afghanistan, however, claimed the lives of eight civilians including two women, a member of the Provincial Council Abdul Nabi said Wednesday.

An injured Afghan child from the Bala Baluk, district of Afghanistan, is seen on a bed at the hospital in Farah province of Afghanistan Tuesday, May 5, 2009. More than 100 innocent civilians were killed in the airstrike by the US army. (Photo: AP)
(More photos... ( http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/rawagallery.php?mghash=a69ba84843a6c778938bd59b65a08f63&mggal=6 ))

In talks with media, Nabi added that the raids took place at 3 a.m. local time (2330 GMT) in Gero district during which eight non-combatants were killed.

The victims, he added, include two women, two children and four men.

However, the U.S.-led Coalition forces admitted in a statement that "during this engagement, a ricocheting round killed a civilian female."

It added that several armed enemy combatants were killed in the operation and Coalition forces found grenades and rifles in their hideout.

Civilian casualties became a sensitive issue in war-plagued Afghanistan while the new NATO commander, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, has issued the revised directives recently to avoid deaths of non-combatants during the anti-Taliban operations.

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