DHAKA: At least five civilians, including three children, were killed overnight in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan after they went hunting for birds with air guns.

Angry locals at the scene of the strike near Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar province, shouted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Karzai’ as they carried the victims’ bodies through the area, a media reporter saw.

A NATO spokesman said Afghan and Coalition forces had responded to an attack with a ‘precision strike’ and that ‘initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties’.

Civilian deaths have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led NATO troops, who are winding down operations as they prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.

‘Last night around 11:00 pm, five civilians aged between 12 and 20 carrying air guns wanted to go hunting birds some eight kilometres (five miles) from the centre of the city of Jalalabad. They were targeted and killed by a foreign forces airstrike,’ provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal told media, reports TDS.

BDST: 1706 HRS, OCT 05, 2013
RoR/JCK