The US-led coalition in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants on Monday of falsely reporting civilian casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces, as five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday. The coalition launched the accusation after Afghan elders alleged that international troops killed up to 18 civilians late on Sunday in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.Capt Vanessa R Bowman, a coalition spokeswoman, said credible intelligence suggested the claims were fabricated as part of a propaganda war. “The insurgents continue to follow their pattern of falsely reporting civilian casualties,” she said. NATO-led forces, whose operations in Helmand are being supported by US-led coalition troops and aircraft, insisted on Sunday that no non-combatants were killed in the fighting. The claims could not be independently verified due to the remoteness of the area where the clash took place. Reports of civilian casualties at the hands of foreign forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly deplored such deaths, saying they undermine efforts to win the trust of the people.
The Americans were killed along with two Afghan soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Monday in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, the district police chief told reporters. NATO officials in Kabul said earlier that two soldiers had been killed while on patrol on Sunday, one in an attack in eastern Afghanistan and the other in the south. NATO did not identify the victims. However, the NetherlandsÂ’ military said a Dutch soldier had been killed overnight by a bomb in southern Afghanistan. The 30-year-old sergeant was in a unit searching for explosives in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded, Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn told a televised news conference. A 23-year-old corporal was injured, Berlijn said.