Afghan villagers say NATO strike kills 9 civilians

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An overnight rocket strike by international forces killed nine civilians, including at least three children, villagers said Thursday. Local Afghan authorities said they had no reports of civilian deaths.

NATO said the target of the strike was a group of people believed to be planting a bomb and that the alliance was investigating the allegations.

The incident illustrates the confusion and blame that regularly result from night raids and strikes in Afghanistan and threaten U.S.-led efforts to curb the Taliban.

In Kabul, the head of the U.N. mission warned that Afghanistan cannot count on international support indefinitely unless the government tackles corruption and bad governance.

Residents of Korkhashien village drove the bodies to the governor's office in the nearby provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, and Associated Press footage and photos showed at least two children among the dead.

Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi confirmed a strike in Korkhashien, but said eight Taliban militants were killed while hiding out in a compound.

However, President Hamid Karzai's office condemned "the attack on civilians" in a statement. Ahmadi could not be reached to see if his information had changed.

NATO said a rocket fired from the ground hit nine people whom the international coalition believed were planting a bomb. The NATO forces "were not aware of any civilians in the vicinity at the time of the strike," it said in a statement. It said no other people were targeted. NATO said it was investigating the incident but did not give further details.

The NATO force "takes all credible allegations of civilian casualties very seriously and investigates each allegation to determine the facts," Navy Capt. Jane Campbell said in the statement. "If any civilians were injured through our actions, we deeply regret it."

Villager Abdul Rashin said the people were killed while harvesting corn in their fields.

The convoy of vans and station wagons from Korkhashien drove from the governor's office to a central market, where the villagers shouted blame at both Karzai and his international allies.

"Death to Karzai! Death to the foreigners!" they yelled as passers-by looked through the car windows at the blanket-covered corpses. The villagers had propped open the rear doors of the cars to show off the bodies, and a young boy on a bicycle stopped to peer in.