Kabul (ANTARA News/AFP) - A NATO air strike left up to 12 civilians dead in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Tuesday, but the US-led foreign military said they had killed insurgents.

Troops overnight targeted Taliban insurgents in the Azra district of Logar province, south of the capital Kabul, officials said.

NATO called in air strikes on two houses where suspected insurgents had gathered for a meeting, district police chief Bakhtiar Gul said.

"Twelve civilians, including women and children, were killed last night when NATO planes targeted two houses," he said, adding that the bodies of four Taliban insurgents had been recovered from the rubble.

But provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said only that an "unknown" number of civilians were killed, along with seven Taliban.

NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they had killed "numerous" insurgents in the strike.
(Uu.B002)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011