Afghanistan: 19 women and the 50 children all under 15 years of age were killed

A US-led occupation military operation in western Afghanistan on Friday killed 76 civilians, including 50 children and 19 women, the puppet Afghan "interior ministry" said. He says US-led forces killed 76 civilians.

"Seventy-six people, all civilians and most of them women and children, were martyred during the operation by coalition forces in Shindand district of Herat province," the puppet "ministry" said on Friday.

"19 women, 7 men and the 50 children all under 15 years of age," were killed in the operation, the statement said.

The puppet karzay "ministry" said it would be one of the highest civilian deaths tolls in the battle against the Taliban since they were ousted from power during the 2001 US-led invasion.

A US military spokesman said he had no knowledge of the non-combatant deaths.

Meanwhile al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reported that the Afghan "interior ministry's" figures had been confirmed by the puppet provincial "governor" and "police chief".

She said that the information had been gathered by a team of investigators from the army, police and intelligence service. They had retrieved bodies from houses that had been bombed. They expect the toll to rise as not all the houses have been checked.

"People are very angry," Khodr said. "This is not the first time. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has made repeated calls for Nato to stop air strikes."

The air assault on Wednesday that caused the deaths were called in to "respond to an attack on troops operating" in Laghman province, which adjoins the Sarobi area where 10 French occupation soldiers died earlier in the week, the US-led occupation forces said.

"During the operation, more than 30 militants were killed and a large cache of mortar rounds and IED [improvised explosive device] materials were destroyed by the commandos," they proclaimed in a statement.