Seven members of an Afghan family, including a woman and six young children, were killed in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities said on Sunday. The strike took place in the Gerda Serai district of Paktai late on Saturday, the provincial governor's spokesman, Rohullah Samon, said as foreign and Afghan security forces try to quell Taliban and Haqqani network insurgents active in the area. "The bombardment by ISAF killed the six children and wife of a man named Shafee," Samon said. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was aware of reports of the incident in volatile Paktia province and was gathering information. Civilian casualties have been a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai's government and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. Samon said the air strike was not coordinated with Afghan security forces on the ground in the area. NATO is preparing to hand over all security responsibilities to Afghan forces and most foreign combat troops are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2014. A NATO airstrike in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, in February killed eight children and prompted a furious Karzai to order an inquiry. The coalition said four foreign soldiers were killed on Saturday by improvised bombs in unrelated incidents in the country's south.
