August 12, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 9, 1429

KABUL, Aug 11: Eight Afghan civilians held hostage by Taliban militants were killed in an air strike by US-led troops during a battle that also left 25 militants dead, the force said on Monday.

Separately, a suicide bomber targeting a Nato convoy in the capital Kabul killed three people, while a Latvian soldier died in a roadside bomb blast in the relatively peaceful north of the country.

The eight civilians were killed after militants ambushed US-led coalition troops in southern Uruzgan province on Sunday and then fled into a compound where they held “hostage” 11 people, including children, a coalition statement said.

“Coalition troops called in close-air support to engage the militants hiding in the structure. They did not have knowledge of non-combatants in the buildings at that time,” it said.

“Survivors reported that coalition aircraft dropped a bomb on the enemy position which killed eight of the civilians.” The statement did not say who the civilian victims were.—AFP