Five civilians, two of them children, were killed Wednesday in a firefight between between insurgents and foreign soldiers in southern Afghanistan, NATO said.
The exchange of small arms fire broke out when insurgents attacked "shuras", or traditional meetings, being held by NATO representatives and civilians in Nad Ali district, in Helmand province, a statement from the alliance said.
"Coalition forces positively identified the insurgent's position and returned fire with small arms and indirect fire," said the statement by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Insurgents returned indirect fire, striking a compound resulting in five Afghan civilians killed and nine wounded, according to initial reports. Two of the killed and six of the wounded were children."
ISAF said coalition forces immediately began providing medical care to the wounded civilians when the insurgents opened fire on the air medical team evacuating the casualties.
"Insurgents purposely place civilians between themselves and coalition forces, they know they're going to kill and wound Afghan civilians," US Army commander Colonel Rafael Torres said in the statement.
Thousands of Afghan civilians have died in insurgent attacks and operations by Afghan and Western troops since the war began in 2001.
The United Nations has said that most civilians are killed by the Taliban, though Afghans largely blame the violence on the presence of foreign troops.
The US and NATO have more than 150,000 troops in the country fighting the insurgency, which is in its 10th year with the number of foreign soldiers killed nearing 600 for this year alone.
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