Afghans say 5 civilians killed in US raid

An overnight raid by U.S. coalition troops and Afghan special forces killed five militants during a mission targeting the leader of a roadside bomb-making cell south of Kabul, a U.S. spokesman said Saturday. However, a spokesman for the governor of Logar province said a government delegation had confirmed those killed were civilians. Angry villagers gathered in protest near a government compound later Saturday and police opened fire to keep them from storming the building, Logar governor's spokesman Den Mohammad Darwesh said. Two people were wounded. U.S. spokesman Col. Greg Julian denied any civilian fatalities and said militants opened fire after American and Afghan troops ordered them to surrender. "They were five armed militants that fired on a joint force ... when they went in to get a targeted individual," Julian said. "They called them out when they arrived, and these guys came out shooting and were killed in the process." A search of the compound found grenades and other weapons, a U.S. statement said. After angry condemnations by President Hamid Karzai over the last several months on the issue of civilian deaths, the U.S. recently agreed to put Afghan forces on all of its missions, including sensitive overnight raids conducted by U.S. Special Operations Forces. Despite that step, the Ministry of Defense spokesman said he knew nothing about the raid. Darwesh said Logar's governor contacted U.S. officials in the province to ask for an explanation, but they responded that they did not know about it because it was conducted from the U.S. base at Bagram–a reference to U.S. Special Operations Forces. Darwesh said a delegation that included provincial lawmakers visited the site of the raid and reported that all five people killed were civilians–a mullah from Kabul and four farmers. Darwesh earlier identified the dead as a father and four of his adult sons. U.S. officials have also been slow to acknowledge when American troops have killed Afghan civilians in past instances. Journalists and human rights monitors can rarely travel to remote battle sites to confirm information from officials. Taliban and other militants have increased attacks during the last three years and now control wide swaths of countryside that NATO troops and Afghan forces can't protect.