Afghan, US forces kill 25 Taliban, 8 civilians

KABUL - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed 25 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians after an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Monday.
The issue of civilian casualties has led to a rift between Afghanistan and its Western allies with President Hamid Karzai saying on Sunday that foreign airstrikes had only succeeded in killing ordinary Afghans and would not defeat the insurgency.
The Taliban launched multiple ambushes on a patrol in the Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province on Sunday, the U.S. military said in a statement.
The militants "then fled into a neighbouring compound where they held 11 non-combatants hostage, including several children and an infant," it said.
The insurgents then fired on the coalition forces from the compound and the troops called in an airstrike, but the statement said they did not know there were civilians in the building.
International forces are permitted to call in airstrikes when they are under attack even if they cannot be 100-percent sure there are no civilians in the area and this is where most mistakes are made, NATO officials say.
Foreign forces say they do their very best to avoid killing innocent bystanders, but the perception among many, if not most, Afghans is that the troops do not take enough care and support for the presence of international troops is waning.
"The Taliban uses innocent civilians' homes, taking them by force to attack Afghan and coalition forces," the U.S. military quoted Uruzgan Police Chief Juma Gul as saying.
"If civilians get killed during these attacks, the responsibility falls on the Taliban and their terrorist sponsors," he said.
Suicide bomb
Afghan and foreign military officials point out that far more civilians are killed by Taliban suicide and roadside bombs, but in aftermath of such attacks many Afghans blame the government and security forces for failing to stop them.
About 80 percent of the victims of suicide bombs are civilians, security analysts say.
A suicide car bomber targeting foreign troops killed three Afghan civilians and wounded 12 more on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, on Monday, a private television station said.
It was unclear if any foreign troops among the casualties.
British and Italian troops had cordoned off the scene of the blast and firefighters were hosing down the wreckage of a vehicle, a Reuters witness said. A police official said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber travelling in a small car.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a blast targeted a convoy of NATO-led forces in the northern province of Faryab on Monday, the provincial police chief said.
General Abdul Khalil Andarabi said initial reports showed that 10 civilians and two soldiers from the alliance were wounded in the blast in the heart of provincial capital. NATO soldiers had cordonned off the site, he said.
Separately, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and wounded two others on the southern outskirts of Kabul on Monday, police said.
Taliban insurgents have launched increasing numbers of suicide and roadside bomb attacks this year in their campaign against Afghan and foreign forces.