Over dozen civilians, US soldier killed in Afghanistan (2nd Roundup)

Kabul - Conflicting accounts were given Thursday of a NATO attack in southern Afghanistan, with villagers saying nine farmers were killed while working in a field and international forces claiming eight militants died while planting a roadside bomb. The latest victims of the Afghan conflict also included five children who died in a bomb attack in the eastern province of Nuristan, a US soldier killed in a militant attack on his patrol also in the east and 22 Taliban in an Afghan-NATO operation in the north, officials said. In the southern province of Helmand, villagers brought the bodies of nine civilians to Lashkargah, the capital, claiming they had been killed by a mortar round from NATO forces. Haji Gholam Rasoul, one of the villagers, said the deceased, including three children, were working in a field in the Babaji area of the provincial capital Wednesday night when the mortar round hit them. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, which his office said left nine civilians dead. The president ordered the Interior Ministry to launch an investigation into the incident. Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand's governor, confirmed the incident, but said according to NATO sources in the province, the attack killed eight Taliban militants who were trying to plant a roadside bomb in the area. NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed in a statement that its forces targeted a group of nine individuals 'whom were believed to be involved in emplacing an IED (Improvised Explosive Device)' by a roadside in Babaji village. 'ISAF forces were not aware of any civilians in the vicinity at the time of the strike. Only those involved in the IED emplacement were targeted,' it said, adding, 'ISAF takes all credible allegations of civilian casualties very seriously and investigates each allegation to determine the facts.' ISAF was investigating the incident, it added. The attack in the province came a day after an Afghan policeman opened fire on British forces at a checkpoint in the Nad Ali district, killing five British soldiers and injuring six. A US soldier was also killed Wednesday afternoon when Taliban insurgents attacked his patrol in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said in a statement without giving details of the incident. Five children were killed Wednesday in an explosion in Nuristan's Barg-e-Matal district, Governor Jamaluddin Bader said. An investigation was under way to find out what caused the blast, he said, adding that villagers told him the explosion was triggered by a rocket round left behind by Taliban militants after they fled the area following a recent military operation in the district. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber died when the explosives he had strapped around his body prematurely detonated in Kunduz city, the capital for the northern province of the same name on Thursday evening, Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor said. The bomber was riding on a motorbike when the incident took place, Omar said, adding the victim's intended target was not known. Hundreds of German forces are stationed in the province. Afghan and NATO forces also killed 22 Taliban insurgents, including six foreign militants, in an operation in Kunduz, said Abdul Wakil Hasas, an army commander in the region. He said the operation, jointly conducted by Afghan and NATO-led German troops and US special forces, began Wednesday in the Gul Tepa area of Kunduz city. Qari Bashir, a local Taliban commander, and six Uzbek and Chechen fighters were among those killed, he said. The Taliban, who were forced from power in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, have widened their insurgency to previously peaceful areas and increased their attacks in large cities, including Kabul. In a sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country, the United Nations said Thursday that it had started relocating 600 personnel, or more than half of its international staff, from danger zones to safer locations inside Afghanistan and abroad. The decision was made eight days after Taliban militants attacked a UN guesthouse in downtown Kabul, killing five international UN staff members.