KABUL, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation into an air attack by NATO forces in southern Afghanistan that killed six children and one adult, his office said on Thursday.
NATO forces were chasing five insurgents they had spotted planting homemade roadside bombs in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, said Zalmai Ayobi, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor.
An airstrike killed one of them but four fled into a nearby village, and NATO forces attacked them from the air. Seven civilians including women and children were killed, Ayobi added.
Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the Zhari district chief, said six of the dead were children, and another two girls were also wounded, according to a statement from Karzai's office.
"President Karzai has appointed a delegation to seriously investigate the incident," the statement said.
Civilian casualties caused by foreign troops hunting Taliban fighters and other insurgents have long been a major source of friction between Karzai's government and its Western backers.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had launched an inquiry into an incident in Kandahar "that concerns several civilians being killed and injured", and said an assessment team was seeking further details.
"Protecting the Afghan civilian population is central to our mission here in Afghanistan and we will investigate this situation fully to determine exactly what took place and whether any further actions need to be taken," ISAF Commander General John R. Allen said in a statement.
Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001. While there have been high levels of foreign troop deaths, Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Ismail Sameem in Kandahar; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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