KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the country's volatile south, separate explosions apparently targeting NATO forces killed two children and a British soldier.
The joint force came under attack during a raid on compounds suspected of housing militants in Waza Khwa district, in Paktika province. In the ensuing battle, several Taliban fighters, but also civilians -- including a woman and a child -- were killed, a coalition statement said.
The military said it investigate the deaths, while blaming militants for using civilians as cover. Initially, the coalition had said there were no civilians killed and wounded in the clash, one of the latest in soaring violence in the country.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were killed.
Spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher said in the statement that Taliban fighters opened fire and threw grenades at the coalition and Afghan forces.
"Afghan and coalition forces countered the attack with a combination of small-arms fire and precision munitions strikes effectively neutralizing the threat to the team," he said.
The building housing the militants was destroyed and several coalition soldiers were wounded in the fighting, the statement said.
"During the follow-on assessment, coalition forces found several adult males, an adult female, and one child dead and two children wounded in the building housing the militants, who were engaging the combined force," the statement said.
In the restive south, a suicide bomber approaching NATO and Afghan forces blew himself up prematurely in Helmand province's Sangin district on Friday, killing two children, said district police chief Wali Mohammad.
There were no casualties among Afghan or NATO forces in that explosion, but a British soldier was killed in a separate blast Thursday about 19 miles west of Kandahar city, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Britain has some 7,000 troops in Afghanistan, where they are engaged in fierce, and increasingly bloody, fighting against the resurgent Taliban militants, mostly in the province of Helmand.
Eighty-two British personnel, including 57 soldiers, have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began there in November 2001.
Violence in Afghanistan has reached new highs this year, with nearly 5,100 people killed in suicide bombings, gun battles, airstrikes, and roadside bombs around the country through the first nine months of the year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials.
