Global General

NATO troops kill, wound over a dozen civilians in Afghanistan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-12 19:08

KABUL: NATO-led troops opened fire in Germsir district of Helmand province in south Afghanistan on Tuesday, leaving 13 civilians dead and two dozen others injured, locals said.

"The NATO-led troops raided a civilian house in Germsir district Monday afternoon," local people Nasratullah Khan told Xinhua. "To protest the action, some 400 locals this morning gathered near a US military base in the district and started throwing stones. The troops opened fire, killing 13 and injuring two dozen civilians."

Khan, 23, helped take the injured to hospital.

Another local people Hajji Jan Gul, who lost one of his sons, said several wounded men had been taken to hospital in Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah for medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on Tuesday that the troops eliminated 13 insurgents in the same Germsir district Monday.

The ISAF statement said NATO forces witnessed a large number of insurgents near a house preparing ammunition and observed insurgent mortar teams moving equipment.

"An unmanned aerial vehicle launched one Hellfire missile, killing 13 insurgents," said the statement.