KANDAHAR, June 22: A Nato air strike in Helmand on Friday killed 25 civilians, three of them children and nine women, police said.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) confirmed that its troops had called in air support after being attacked and said it was investigating reports of a ‘small number’ of civilian casualties.

Provincial police chief Col Mohammad Hassan told AFP that the bombing came after Taliban attacked an Isaf convoy from houses and gardens in a village.

About 20 Taliban were reported killed in the strike after midnight, he said.

“The Nato forces’ air strike on the area mistakenly targeted two to three civilian houses, killing 25 civilians,” he said. The dead included nine women and three six months to two years old children, he said.

The rest were men, including the chief of the mosque of the village about 14km north of Lashkar Gah town.

Col Hassan said the bodies were lying where they had been hit.

“The militants seem to have taken the Taliban’s bodies with them,” he said.

Isaf said the target of the strike was a compound “assessed to have been occupied by up to 30 insurgent fighters, most of whom were killed in the engagement.”

“ISAF troops are now investigating reports that a small number of civilians may also have been in the compound,” it said in a statement.

It had not yet been possible to determine if civilians had been killed or injured or if any casualties were the result of insurgent or Isaf action, it said.

An Isaf soldier was wounded, said spokesman Maj John Thomas.

Taliban confirmed that fighters from the group had ambushed troops in the area. “Taliban left the area before the air strike,” spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called for an investigation.

Taliban militants killed seven Afghan policemen and wounded a soldier from the coalition in ambushes around the country, Afghan officials said.—AFP