Allied Forces in Afghanistan expressed their apologies and called the killing of five members of a family in the southeastern province of Khost “Saddening”.

On 9th of April two women, a new born baby and two men from a family were killed in an attack of Allied Forces in a village of the province.

In a statement the Allied forces claimed that this family had opened fired at them and the Afghan forces from a location close to the locality where rebels were active but due to the counter firing by allied soldiers, they were all killed.

In the same report it is claimed that the family were not seeking revenge but were firing in their defense towards unknown threats.

Contradicting the report, the spokesman for the Provincial Governor Kochi Nasiri told the media that the members of the family have not fired at the allied soldiers and that the allied soldiers after entering their house have killed them.

A member of the same unfortunate family is serving the Afghan National Army as an officer, another member is an employee of the department of “the Martyred and the Handicapped” of Khost province.

The provincial council has, in protest to this incident, started a strike for an indefinite period of time. They have maintained that their strike will continue until such incidents are not stopped.

The Allied Forces now say that a joint investigation with the local Afghan authorities has initiated.

Killing of civilians in Afghanistan is a matter of serious concern and sensitivity in the wake of growing hatred against the American and western forces operating in Afghanistan under the banner of NATO and ISAF. It has also invoked the outcry of human rights watchdogs. Although Allied forces have always maintained that they are doing their best to avoid civilian causalities, each time it happens it adds to the anger of both the serving administration and the Afghan Public.