[Dawn] Ten civilians, mostly school children, have been killed during Western military operations in eastern Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday, citing "initial reports".Karzai condemned the killings which his statement said took place in Kunar province, bordering Pakistan, on Saturday.
"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students, have been killed," the statement said.
"President Karzai strongly condemns the operation which caused civilian deaths and has appointed a delegation to investigate the incident," it said.
A senior official in the Afghan government, speaking on condition anonymity, said the death toll could change because investigations are ongoing.
When contacted Sunday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had no information on any operations or casualties in Kunar.
A senior Western military official told AFP that US special forces have been conducting operations against militants in the border regions of Kunar. "They have been killing a lot of Taliban and capturing a lot of Taliban," he said.
Politicians representing Kunar walked out of an important parliamentary session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet to protest against the civilian casualties, television showed.
The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban fighters are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.
"In 33 out of 34 provinces, the Taliban has a shadow government," a Western military intelligence official told reporters on Sunday. Omar "has a government-in-waiting, with ministers chosen" for the day the government falls, he added.
"Time is running out. Taliban influence is expanding," the military official warned. "Where the (Afghan) government is weak, the enemy is strong," and able to exploit the corruption and unpopularity of Karzai's administration, he said.
ISAF had no immediate comment on the Kunar operations. US military sources said US Special Forces generally operate in Afghanistan outside the ISAF mission, as Operation Enduring Freedom.
Most recently, Karzai condemned the killing of six civilians during a NATO raid in early December as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates vowed US troop reinforcements would keep civilian deaths to a minimum. Karzai's office said six civilians, including a woman, died when troops from ISAF conducted an operation in Laghman province on the night of December 2.
Meanwhile a British soldier was killed on Monday in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London said, taking the country's military death toll there this year to 107. The soldier, from the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, died as a result of the blast while on patrol in the Kajaki area of southern Helmand province where British troops are based, the ministry said.
Earlier Monday, officials said Taliban-linked militants stormed a police post in northwestern Afghanistan, sparking a gunfight that killed two police and left three others missing. The militants attacked the post late Sunday in Badghis province, killing two officers, provincial police chief Sayed Ahmad Sameh told AFP. Three other policemen were missing, he added.