Eleven Afghan civilians were killed this morning in a US bombing raid, the US military said, in the worst incident of its kind in Afghanistan since nearly 50 wedding guests were killed by US aircraft last June.
The seven women and four men were killed when their house was hit by a stray 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bomb in a raid against a group of unknown attackers in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said.
"I'm sad to report that 11 Afghan civilians were killed and one was wounded early this morning when a bomb dropped by coalition aircraft landed on a house on the outskirts of Shkin near the Pakistani border," US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Lefforge told reporters at Bagram Air Force Base 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul.
US Marine Corps AV-8 Harriers had been called in after an Afghan military force checkpoint came under attack near the Shkin fire base in Paktika province just before midnight (8.30 p.m. Irish time), he said.
Four Afghan militia forces were wounded in that attack and forces from Shkin pursued the attackers towards the border.
AFP