An airstrike by the US-led Nato coalition has killed eight members of a family in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities have said.
The coalition said it is aware of the allegation and is investigating the events in Paktia province.
Provincial spokesman Rohullah Samon said that a man, woman and their six children were killed in a coalition airstrike in Suri Khail village.
The deaths of citizens caught in the crossfire of the decade-long war continue to be an irritant in President Hamid Karzai's relationship with his international partners.
Earlier this month, the Afghan president warned that civilian casualties caused by Nato airstrikes could undermine the strategic partnership agreement he just signed with the US.
Mr Samon said Mohammad Shafi, his wife and their six children died in the airstrike.
"Shafi was not a Taliban. He was not in any opposition group against the government. He was a villager," Mr Samon said. "We are working to find out the ages of their children and how many of them are boys and girls."
Nato said: "Coalition officials are currently looking into the claims and gathering information."
Any Nato airstrike that leads to civilian deaths erodes the Afghan people's trust in foreign forces.
"If the lives of Afghan people are not safe, the signing of the strategic partnership has no meaning," Mr Karzai's office said earlier this month.
This warning came after Afghan officials reported that 18 civilians had died recently in four airstrikes in Logar, Kapisa, Badghis and Helmand provinces.
Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3021 killed as insurgents increased violence with suicide attacks and roadside bombs, the United Nations said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article