3 children killed in ISAF military exercise: Afghan official

An Afghan police officer on Tuesday said three Afghan children were killed by the test firing of NATO troops in the eastern Kunar province, while the forces said only one local was killed.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops carried out military exercise on Monday night, and a mortar round mistakenly hit a civilian house in Matin village of Manogai district, provincial police chief Abdul Jalai told Xinhua.

Three children were killed and a man as well as a woman injured in the incident, he said, adding local officials had asked ISAF to avoid civilian casualties and damage in future military exercise.

However, ISAF said in a statement that one local was killed and two others injured in the incident.

"One round of a group of 5 rounds fell short for technical reasons," it said, adding the two injured, both of whom were 7- year-old girls, were evacuated to a nearby ISAF medical facility for treatment.

ISAF has launched an inquiry into the incident and an ISAF assistance and liaison team has already visited the family, it said.

Military exercise by ISAF troops has not caused Afghan civilian casualties frequently, although their operations against militants have mistakenly killed civilians from time to time.

In recent cases, NATO troops killed nine civilians in the southern Kandahar province and 11 others in the neighboring Helmand province in operations against Taliban insurgents on Oct. 18.

Source: Xinhua