The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has raised serious concerns over coalition air strikes in Helmand province and said that at least 18 civilians may have been killed in the raids. American military officials confirmed that they had carried out at least 30 air strikes in the province last week.

Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, the spokesperson for the international coalition said, "We are investigating the allegations and working diligently to determine whether civilians were killed or injured as a result of US air strikes."

However, it is unclear whether the civilians were killed in US authorised air strikes.

On Sunday (12 February), the UN said in a statement: "On 9 and 10 February, international military forces conducted airstrikes in Helmand's Sangin district reportedly targeting anti-government elements. [The UN's] initial enquiries suggest that the airstrikes killed at least 18 civilians, nearly all women and children."

Escalating violence in the region has been causing concerns and according to the UN, civilian casualties have increased drastically over the past week. At least seven civilians were killed by an alleged Taliban suicide bomber in an attack in Lashkar Gah on 11 February.

Najeeb Danesh, the spokesperson for Afghanistan's defence ministry said that a delegation from the ministry was probing the issue.

Family members of the victims at a hospital in the province's capital Lashkar Gah have demanded an explanation over the air strikes. "How could women and children be Taliban?" a resident of Sangin district identified only as Majnoon was quoted as saying by Reuters. He added that 11 people were killed at his brother's house in an air raid on 9 February.

Another resident Haji Ahmand told the Guardian: "What the Americans are doing in Helmand is not right. They target the locals instead of [the] Taliban. The Taliban are far from my brother's house. We would prefer if the Americans would just leave us alone."

Hundreds of troops have been deployed in Helmand province by Nato to help Afghan forces in their battle against the Taliban. Additional support is provided by the US Special Forces. </s> At least 14 civilians were killed after the Taliban attacked the center of Khwaja Sabz Posh district in the northern province of Faryab early on Friday morning, the provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurish said.

Yurish added that the civilians were killed when the Taliban’s rockets landed near their houses.

He said that 39 others were wounded in the attack.

Yurish said that children are also among the victims.

He said that the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals in the province.

Taliban rejected the claims and the rockets were not fired by members of the group. </s> A United Nations investigation has determined that at least 18 civilians have been killed by international coalition airstrikes in Afghanistan over the past week.

Air raids on Thursday and Friday around Sangin district in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, have killed at least 18 civilians, most of them women and children, the UN inquiry found. Survivors are currently being treated at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, the regional capital.

The American military says it has conducted 30 airstrikes around Helmand in the last week, and it will look into the UN’s allegations.

"We are investigating the allegations and working diligently to determine whether civilians were killed or injured as a result of US air strikes," said Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, as cited by Reuters.

While the UN statement said that the allegedly deadly strikes had been conducted by "international military forces," only US aircraft had been involved in recent military operations in the region, Reuters reported, citing military officials.

The NATO-led military mission in Helmand has been providing support to local security forces in fighting against Taliban insurgents, Reuters said, adding that US aircraft had been deployed to provide combat support.

Nearly 900 civilians were killed or injured in Helmand Province last year, the UN said, adding that this figure "was the highest in the country in 2016 outside of Kabul."

Earlier this week, a US military commander suggested that the NATO-led force in Afghanistan should expand its presence, as he felt the troops assisting Kabul in tackling militant insurgents were "a few thousand" soldiers short. The Afghan Defense Ministry said it supported "any decision taken between the Afghan and American governments" on the matter, adding that expansion of the international military presence would be a "good step."

The Taliban has opposed the planned move, saying additional foreign troops in Afghanistan would bring "nothing more than suffering and more casualties," Reuters reported. </s> Civilians were among at least 18 people killed in a US air strike against Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said, with conflicting claims about the number of civilian deaths.

The attack happened in Achin district, a hotbed of IS insurgents in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan, as local residents gathered to welcome a tribal elder who had recently returned from the hajj pilgrimage.

“Three civilians lost their lives in this strike,” Achin police chief Mohammad Ali told AFP, adding that 15 militants were also killed.

But Esmatullah Shinwari, a Nangarhar MP, said the strike killed 13 civilian relatives of the local elder. Six IS fighters were also killed, he added.

The American military said it conducted a “counter-terrorism airstrike in Achin” on Wednesday, adding it was aware of claims of civilian casualties.

“We… are currently reviewing all materials related to this strike,” US military spokesman Charles Cleveland said in a statement.

“US Forces-Afghanistan takes all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously.”

There was no information on whether it was an attack by a drone or a piloted aircraft.

Islamic State first emerged in Afghanistan in late 2014 and has since violently challenged the much larger Afghan Taliban movement in parts of the country’s east.

But the fighters have steadily lost territory in recent months because of stepped-up US airstrikes and a ground campaign by Afghan forces in Nangarhar.

They are confined to two or three districts including Achin, according to Afghan and US officials.

Civilian and military casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the 15-year campaign against the insurgents, prompting harsh public and government criticism.

A US air strike killed eight Afghan policemen earlier this month in the southern province of Uruzgan in the first apparent “friendly fire” incident since American forces were given greater powers to strike at insurgents in June.

The new authority gave the US-led NATO troops greater latitude to order air strikes in support of Afghan troops. </s> Eleven members of an Afghan family, including women and children, were killed in a grenade attack on their home in the country's volatile east, officials said Monday.

The attack, which left three others wounded, occurred in Laghman province on Sunday but no militant group has so far claimed responsibility.

“Eleven people were martyred after two grenades were thrown at their house by unknown gunmen in Laghman's Baad Pakh district,” the local governor's spokesman Sarhadi Zwak told AFP.

“All the victims were civilians, women and children among them,” Zwak added.

One of them died of his wounds while being rushed to a hospital in neighbouring Nangarhar province, said health official Abdul Latif Qayyomi.

Civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest recorded by the UN since 2009, with nearly 11,500 non-combatants killed or wounded.

Twelve civilians, including eight children returning from school, were killed on Friday in a roadside bombing in the eastern province of Paktika.

The UN last week voiced alarm over the recent killing of 25 other civilians in the southern province of Helmand, most of them in US air strikes. </s> At least 18 service members of the Afghan National Amy (ANA) were killed, 16 wounded and four others were taken away by the Taliban after a group of fighters of the group attacked an army base in Shah Wali Kot district in southern Kandahar province on Thursday night, a security source said on Friday.

After a group of fighters of the group attacked an army base in Zangitan village in Shah Wali Kot district in southern Kandahar province yesterday, a security source said today.

This is the second attack of the Taliban on army bases in Kandahar in the past week. On Monday May 22, 11 Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded in a Taliban attack on an army base in Achakzai village in Shah Wali Kot district.

Meanwhile, almost 20 Taliban insurgents were killed in the attack, said 205 Atal military Corps in Kandahar. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan official says at least five civilians and 35 insurgents have been killed in an airstrike by Afghan forces in northern Kunduz province.

Nematullah Temori, spokesman for the provincial governor in Kunduz, said Tuesday that 55 civilians were wounded in the attack a day earlier in Dashti Archi district. He said a government delegation is investigating the incident.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish earlier said the airstrike targeted Taliban fighters and killed more than 30 of them, including nine commanders. He said large number of fighters had gathered in the area to hold a military parade.

The Taliban said in a statement that the airstrike hit a madrassa, or Islamic religious school, killing and wounding more than 100 clerics, religious students and other civilians. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says at least four army personnel, all crew members of a military helicopter, have been killed when their aircraft crashed and caught fire in western Farah province.

Mohammad Naser Mehri, the provincial governor's spokesman, says two pilots and two sharpshooters died late Friday night when their chopper caught fire after an emergency landing in Khaki Safad district.

Mehri says the hard landing was caused by a technical problem but soon the chopper caught fire as it was loaded with ammunition.

He says he doesn't believe the incident was caused by enemy fire although an investigation is continuing.

The Taliban are in control of most areas in Farah province, especially Khaki Safad district. </s> At least 26 Afghan soldiers were killed after the Taliban attacked a military base in Kandahar on Tuesday, reported AFP quoting the country’s Defence Ministry. The Afghan Air Force said it carried out strikes to support the army during the attack on the base, which is in Karzali area of Khakrez district, near the Helmand border.

At least 13 soldiers were injured in the Taliban attack, Defence Ministry Spokesperson General Dawlat Waziri said. He claimed that the Afghan security forces had killed more than 80 insurgents in response.

“We conducted multiple airstrikes, killing dozens of them,” said the provincial air force commander. “Our helicopters transported wounded soldiers to hospitals in Kandahar.” An unnamed senior army official said that at least 12 soldiers were missing after the attack.
At least 11 Afghan civilians are killed and 16 wounded when a NATO helicopter attacked a house where Taliban insurgents had taken shelter in Logar Province, east of Kabul.