Nine civilians were killed Monday when NATO forces carried out an airstrike targeting suspected Taliban militants just north of Kabul, DPA QUOTED officials as saying. The airstrike was launched after a NATO base came under fire overnight by suspected Taliban fighters in Kapisa province, said the deputy provincial governor, Sayed Mohammad Dawood Hashimi. There were no reports of casualties among NATO troops in the attack on the base, but when the troops responded to the firing and called in air support, a civilian home was hit, resulting in the death of a man, three boys and five women, Hashimi said. The spokesman's office for the Interior Ministry confirmed that a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base was attacked on Sunday night in Kapisa's Nijrab district. The ministry also said there was retaliatory artillery and aerial firing by the troops, which caused some casualties among civilians, although it could not confirm the exact number. Colonel Tom Collins, chief ISAF spokesman, said the incident was under investigation but he could not provide any details yet. On Sunday, 16 Afghan civilians were killed and 25 wounded when they were caught in a crossfire between US-led coalition forces and suspected Taliban militants after a military vehicle was targeted by a suicide car bomb outside the eastern city of Jalalabad.
