A US airstrike on two vehicles carrying alleged insurgents in northeastern Afghanistan has left as many as 22 civilians dead, according to the governor of the Nuristan province. However, the US military says those who died were militants who had earlier attacked an American base with mortars.

Speaking in hospital one of the injured said: “We were travelling in a vehicle in the Want area when the bombing took place. Some people died others were injured.” According to the Americans the helicopters identified the militants firing positions, tracked them down and destroyed the vehicles they were travelling in. Independent verification is proving difficult in such a remote region.

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