Afghanistan: Nato Strike by US Aircraft Kills 14 Civilians Including Children

A Nato air strike conducted in eastern Afghanistan has killed 14 civilians, including two children, and wounded 13 others, an Afghan official has said.

Afghanistan's outgoing President Hamid Karzai condemned the strike and the killing of civilians. His office released a statement which claimed that US aircraft were to blame for the killings.

Shuja ul-Mulk Jalala, the governor of Kunar province, said that the bodies of the 14 killed were taken from the district of Narang to the provincial capital in order to complain that all of those killed were civilians.

Jalala added that it was difficult to identify the exact details of the incident because the area was barely under government control.

The US-led coalition operating in Afghanistan said that it would investigate the details of the incident.

US army spokesman, Maj. Paul Greenberg, said that a strike by the coalition had killed one armed militant in Kunar's Dangam district.

"A second operation was conducted on the same night in Narang District, Kunar Province, and we are currently looking into the circumstances of that operation," Greenberg said.

The incident comes as the successor to Karzai is still being decided following allegations of vote-rigging and fraud in the country's landmark Presidential election. Opponents Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani both believe that they are the victors of June's ballot.

Foreign combat forces in Afghanistan are set to withdraw at the end of the year but the military alliance hopes that a newly-installed government in Kabul will permit a continued foreign presence in the country.