Afghan authorities said on Monday they are investigating an airstrike at the weekend which local officials say killed more than a dozen civilians, including children.
Provincial officials said 15 people died on Saturday night when a rocket struck a house in Khashrod district of Nimroz province.
“We are aware of claims of civilian casualties in Nimroz. We have launched an investigation jointly with local officials,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
Provincial council member Nehmatullah Sediqqi told AFP that Afghan forces carried out two airstrikes in the district.
“In the first strike, six Taliban fighters were killed. The second strike hit a house that killed 15 civilians, including women and children,” he said.
Nimroz public health official Nasir Ahmad Haibat said bodies of 15 people were brought to a hospital on Sunday.
Another local official, who did not want to named, said the house targeted in the strike belonged to a Taliban commander and security forces did not know there were civilians inside.
The latest bloodshed triggered international calls for an investigation into the strike.
“We call for a full investigation and if need be for accountability and justice,” the French embassy in Kabul said on Twitter.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report in October that 2,117 civilians were killed and 3,822 wounded in the first nine months of 2020.
President Ghani did not mention the number of those who lost their lives in the airstrike but said that the Taliban and other groups are “using people’s houses and public places as shields,” which is the “main reason behind civilian casualties” and is a consequence of war and is “not acceptable.”
The report said that about eight percent of the civilian casualties during that period were caused by Afghan airstrikes.
The Taliban and Afghan forces have clashed almost daily across Afghanistan despite peace talks between the insurgents and the government.
The second round of peace talks commenced last week in the Qatari capital, with government negotiators pushing for a ceasefire as violence continues unabated across the conflict-wracked country.
