Civilian Casualties

NATO's International Security Assistance Forces said Wednesday it has received "credible reports" of civilian casualties -- including women and children -- from at least one of three fights Tuesday involving government, ISAF and Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. "ISAF can confirm that four injured civilians who approached an ISAF patrol have been evacuated and are now being treated in the ISAF military hospital at Kandahar airfield," the ISAF public affairs office said in a written statement.

Afghans from the eastern province of Nagrahar tell CNN that the Taliban exaggerated reports of civilian casualties in a bombed-out village they displayed to a group of international journalists Sunday. CNN's Nic Robertson was among the journalists who traveled to Koram, about 60 miles west of the Nagrahar's provincial capital, Jalalabad. He reported seeing villagers sift through rubble in search of loved ones and visiting 17 people in the hospital who said they were injured in the bomb blast.

Just days after the governor of an northeastern Afghanistan province claimed dozens of civilians were killed in a NATO-led mission targeting insurgents, new allegations of civilian casualties surfaced in a nearby province Thursday. NATO's International Security Assistance Force is investigating the claims stemming from an operation Thursday morning in the Alah Say district of Kapisa province, the military said in a statement. Armed insurgents were the target, ISAF said. "We take civilian casualty allegations very seriously; we'll investigate this incident as quickly as possible," said U.S. Army Col. Patrick Hynes, director of ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center.

The NATO command in Afghanistan said Thursday it is investigating a rocket strike in Helmand province, and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday night near Babaji village in Lashkar Gah, when a rocket was fired against a group of nine people preparing a roadside bomb, according to the International Security Assistance Force. ISAF said it had become aware of civilian casualty allegations from media reports. Reports also said there was an airstrike and rocket attacks in Lashkar Gah, ISAF said.

The NATO-led command in Afghanistan is investigating a raid that led to the deaths of six Afghans and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday in the eastern province of Khost in an operation launched by Afghan and coalition forces, and the probe highlights the coalition's emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths. The force approached a building and "was engaged with small arms fire. " "Coalition forces take every allegation of civilian casualties seriously and will conduct a complete assessment of the engagement," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement on Thursday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Sunday with the top U.S. military commander in Iraq to voice his outrage over the reported deaths of Iraqi civilians during a Sunday morning military raid in Baghdad's Sadr City, a government spokesman told CNN. Al-Maliki expressed his concerns to Gen. David Petraeus over Iraqi reports that 10 to 15 civilians were killed in the raid, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN's "Late Edition. " The U.S. military said its ground forces are "unaware" of civilian deaths in the early morning raid that it said left 49 "criminals" dead.

Up to 50 people were killed Tuesday in U.S. airstrikes on buildings in an Afghan area frequented by insurgents, a senior U.S. military official told CNN on Friday. However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the death toll was higher, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that more than 100 people were killed. "I got different word from the government this morning that there were more than 100 casualties, nearly 125 to 130 civilians lost ... and that it was done by the bombings," he said.

Eight children and three women died in eastern Afghanistan when NATO-led forces bombarded houses, a provincial official told CNN Thursday. The incident took place Wednesday in Khost province's Domandera district, according to Khost upper house member and foreign relations chief Arifullah Pashton. There was no immediate reaction from NATO's International Security Assistance Force about civilian casualties in Khost. But ISAF said it was investigating allegations of civilian casualties in an airstrike targeting an insurgent in Ghazni province, in the southeast.

President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drones in Libya, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates suggested that the unmanned Predator missions may have already begun. He said he believed that the first flights were launched Thursday but were called back due to poor weather. "The president has said that where we have some unique capabilities, he is willing to use those," Gates said. "And I think that today may in fact have been their first mission.

Civilian casualties resulting from Afghanistan's war have spiked, jumping some 24 percent above figures from last year, the United Nations reported Friday. The Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan announced it recorded 1,013 civilian deaths in Afghanistan during the first six months of this year. That compares to 818 Afghan civilians who were killed during the same period in 2008, while 684 civilians were killed during the first half of 2007.

Four people were shot dead Friday in an anti-NATO demonstration in southern Afghanistan during an exchange of gunfire that took place amid a protest over civilian casualties, police said. The violence erupted in Qalat -- the provincial capital of the country's southern border province of Zabul -- and left three civilians and one police officer dead, according to the provincial police chief, Abdul Elham. Five others were injured in the firefight, he said. Elham did not offer details regarding the previous civilian casualties, which allegedly occurred the night before, and it's not clear how Friday's protest turned deadly.

The NATO-led command in Afghanistan is investigating a raid that led to the deaths of six Afghans and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday in the eastern province of Khost in an operation launched by Afghan and coalition forces, and the probe highlights the coalition's emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths. The force approached a building and "was engaged with small arms fire. " "Coalition forces take every allegation of civilian casualties seriously and will conduct a complete assessment of the engagement," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement on Thursday.

Eight children and three women died in eastern Afghanistan when NATO-led forces bombarded houses, a provincial official told CNN Thursday. The incident took place Wednesday in Khost province's Domandera district, according to Khost upper house member and foreign relations chief Arifullah Pashton. There was no immediate reaction from NATO's International Security Assistance Force about civilian casualties in Khost. But ISAF said it was investigating allegations of civilian casualties in an airstrike targeting an insurgent in Ghazni province, in the southeast.

NATO airstrikes hit a bakery and a restaurant in the Libyan city of al-Brega Saturday, killing 15 civilians, a Libyan government official told CNN, though the alliance countered that claim. NATO said it had struck key command-and-control centers. The alliance said there was "no indication of civilian casualties in connection with these strikes. " Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces have occupied buildings in an abandoned area of al-Brega from where they are launching attacks on civilians, a NATO statement said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to carry out an independent fact-gathering mission on Monday's NATO attack in the city of Surman, which resulted in civilian casualties. "The Security Council should hold an urgent meeting to discuss the matter and stop this barbaric attack," he said in a nationally televised address. In the attack, five houses were hit in Surman, which is west of Tripoli, and 15 people died, including three children, according to a government spokesman.

NATO said Monday that a residential building west of Tripoli was targeted early Monday in an airstrike that the Libyan government alleges killed 15 people, including three children. NATO said in a statement that, while it could not confirm the casualties, "we would regret any loss of civilian life and we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. " The organization added that the strike was justified. "This was a precision strike on a legitimate military target -- a command-and-control node which was directly involved in coordinating systematic attacks on the Libyan people," NATO said in the statement.

NATO acknowledged Sunday that an errant airstrike in Tripoli may have caused "a number of civilian casualties. " Libya's government had claimed earlier Sunday that nine people were killed and six injured when a NATO strike hit a residential neighborhood in the Libyan capital. "This is cold-blooded murder," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said at the scene in Tripoli. "Is this the protection of civilians? Is this really the search for peace and democracy in Libya, to attack peaceful neighborhoods of Tripoli?"

With the conflict between Libyan rebels and Moammar Gadhafi's forces dragging on with little progress, questions have been raised over NATO's ability to bring resolution to the conflict. Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has criticized the air campaign against Gadhafi saying shrinking military budgets have put the mission and future NATO operations at risk. His comments came as other NATO partners questioned their ability to sustain involvement. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who met British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday, has said the alliance will extend its mission 90 days beyond the end of June and maintain pressure "for as long as it takes.

The number of civilians killed in attacks and other war-related violence hit 368 in May, making it the deadliest month for Afghans since 2007, the United Nations said Saturday. The news came as Afghan authorities said three attacks in separate parts of the country killed at least 24 people, including 10 children, raising concern that civilians are increasingly being targeted in intense fighting since insurgents launched their so-called spring offensive. "We are very concerned that civilian suffering will increase even more over the summer fighting season which historically brings the highest numbers of civilian casualties," Georgette Gagnon, the director of human rights for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Explosions erupted in Tripoli for a second consecutive night Wednesday into Thursday morning as NATO jets struck a vocational secondary school, a Libyan government official said. "We're not in a position to independently confirm that allegation," a NATO official said. The attacks got under way hours after a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged that the United States is providing munitions for allies to use in the air campaign against Libya. "We have provided material support, including munitions, to allies and partners engaged in operations in Libya," Col. Dave Lapan said in a statement.