KABUL - US-led troops killed a boy in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday while searching a village for a militant who had been making bombs, the US military said in a statement.
It said the boy, aged between 10 and 14, died in a village near Asadabad.
"Coalition troops were looking for a suspected maker of improvised explosive devices in Kunar province when the incident occurred," the statement said.
When troops approached the suspect's house, he and two armed men fled shouting in an apparent attempt to rally others in the village, it added.
When it appeared that the suspected insurgents were taking up firing positions, the statement said, troops opened fire and killed the boy, whom village elders described as a transient.
The US military leads a coalition force of over 21,700 troops, of whom 20,000 are American. They are stationed in the south and southeast to hunt remnants of the Taliban regime.
The Taliban were ousted in a US-led military campaign in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington but loyalists have been waging an insurgency ever since.
The US usually has around 16,000 troops in theatre but numbers have risen as some units prepare to leave, while new military units arrive.
03/23/2005 13:32 GMT