A US air strike in southern Afghanistan has killed up to 25 civilians, a local police chief said on Friday.
The victims included women, children and a cleric as well as 20 suspected Taliban militants, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the Helmand province police chief, said.
The air strike, which happened late on Thursday, was launched in response to an attack on Nato troops by militants near the town of Gereshk.
It killed 25 civilians including nine women, three babies and the mullah of a local mosque, Mr Andiwal said.
In a statement, NATO said a compound “assessed to have been occupied by up to 30 insurgent fighters, most of whom were killed in the engagement”, had been attacked.
“We are concerned about reports that some civilians may have lost their lives during this attack,” Lieutenant Colonel Mike Smith, a Nato spokesman, said.
There has been increasing anger among Afghans about the number of civilian deaths that have resulted from international military operations.
An estimated 120 people have been killed in recent weeks, including seven children who died in a US air strike on Sunday.

Public protests
Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, has faced public protests over the issue. However, the new British ambassador to Kabul this week insisted foreign troops were popular among a civilian population wary of a return to Taliban rule.
“Mistakes have been made. I know that, we all know that, we regret them deeply,” Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles told the BBC on Wednesday.
“But the Taliban are responsible for five times as many civilian casualties as the coalition forces here.”
People’s main concern was “not about us staying. It’s about us going”, he added.
The incident comes amid rising violence in Afghanistan over the past 17 months, the bloodiest period since the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001. It also coincides with a warning by German authorities of serious attack threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as further afield in Europe and in the United States.
Germany’s Interior Ministry spokesman Christian Sachs said on Friday there was evidence to suggest terrorist training groups in Afghanistan had become stronger and were ready for action. People from Europe, including Germany, were part of these groups.
German state broadcaster ZDF reported that the government had evidence 10 to 12 people from Germany were in militant training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.