HERAT - At least 30 civilians, including women and children, were among the dead after clashes in western Afghanistan that the US-led coalition said killed 136 Taliban, police said Tuesday.
Hundreds of people had demonstrated in the Shindand district of the western province of Herat on Monday, after coalition and Afghan operations there on Friday and Sunday, insisting civilians were among the victims.
Herat police chief Mohammad Shafiq Fazli told AFP an investigation had found that "there were at least 30 civilians, including women and children, among those killed in Shindand`s fighting."
The information was based on "reports from various sources" from the area, he said, giving no details.
A delegation had gone to investigate, a spokeswoman for Herat`s governor said. "We know civilians have been killed but we don`t have the figure," said spokeswoman Farzana Ahmadi.
But a spokesman for the US Central Command said it had received no reports of civilian casualties in the fighting.
"Every precaution is taken to prevent injury to Afghan civilians during both battles, and no civilian casualties were reported," said Major David Small.
"If any reports are made through official channels, they will be investigated," he said, adding that to his knowledge no investigation into alleged civilian deaths was underway.
In the Herat fighting, coalition and Afghan troops responded to an attack Friday by more than 70 Taliban fighters in Shindand`s Zerkoh Valley with ground and air fire that killed 49 Taliban, the coalition said. A US soldier also died.
On Sunday the security forces attacked Taliban fighting positions, including with bombs. Another 87 Taliban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement, it said.
The police announcement came hours after 500 students protested against US military action in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where six people were killed Sunday.
The demonstrators, who burned an effigy of US President George W. Bush, said all six were civilians. The coalition has said four were militants and that a woman and a teenager were killed in crossfire.
The incident was in Nangarhar`s Bati Kot area, where US Marines were accused of opening fire on civilians after a March 4 ambush. About a dozen people were killed. The Marine unit was ordered out of Afghanistan days later.
There is growing concern at civilian deaths in operations against Taliban insurgents, including those carried out by the US-led coalition, which invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
"The American military unfortunately makes such mistakes which definitely is having a deep negative impact on the international forces` mission against terrorism," a parliamentarian from Herat, Ahmad Behzad, told AFP Tuesday.
"If the US forces do not concentrate on military targets and if they make such mistakes again, this will cause the defeat of the coalition forces," he said.
The UN mission in Afghanistan had been asked by the government and local community to look into what happened at Shindand.
"We do have concerns about the possible use of disproportionate force and possible displacement of people in the area," its spokesman Adrian Edwards told AFP.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission also expressed concern about civilian casualties.
"It`s the civilians who pay much of the price of the war," said commissioner Nader Nadery.
"The increasing civilian casualties could affect the confidence of the people in operations against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. It will also provide an easy tool for the Taliban to use against the progress over the past five years."
While scores of civilians have been killed in military operations, more have lost their lives to militant attacks, including bombings and assassinations.
New York-based group Human Rights Watch said this month assaults by the Taliban and associated Islamist groups had killed nearly 700 Afghan civilians since the beginning of 2006.
05/01/2007 15:25 GMT