Taliban fight killed 33 civilians

• An investigation into a November firefight between Taliban insurgents and joint U.S. and Afghan forces has concluded that 33 civilians were killed in the operation, the U. S. military said on Thursday.

The battle took place in northern Kunduz province, and two U. S. soldiers and three Afghan troops were also killed. The operation, in Boz Kandahari village, targeted Taliban leaders that the U. S. military said were responsible for deadly incursions in the area, including a brazen assault on the provincial capital in October.

“The investigation determined, regretfully, that 33 civilians were killed and 27 wounded,” a statement from U. S. forces in Afghanistan said of the November raid. It said that 26 Taliban fighters, including two leaders, were also killed — a claim the villagers dispute.

“To defend themselves and Afghan forces, U.S. forces returned fire in self-defence at Taliban who were using civilian houses as firing positions,” the statement said, adding that no further action would be taken.

No compensation has been paid to the family of the victims, according to Kunduz lawmaker Fatima Aziz.

“We want the U. S. government to pay reparations for the loss civilian lives and the destruction of their houses,” Aziz said when reached by telephone.

The probe comes as civilian casualties have reached record highs in Afghanistan, where battles in rural areas and suicide and other bomb attacks are causing the majority of civilian deaths, killing more than 2,500 people in the first nine months of 2016.

Air operations were responsible for 133 deaths from January to September, the UN said, though only one-third of which were caused by foreign airstrikes.

In Kunduz, U. S. and Afghan troops called in airstrikes after coming under fire in the village, the report said.

“Upon arrival at the village, friendly forces were soon engaged by the Taliban from multiple civilian buildings,” it said. After they began taking casualties, U.S. forces that were there to advise and assist Afghan troops called in airstrikes to “suppress Taliban” who were firing on medevac crews.

“No civilians were seen or identified in the course of the battle,” the U. S. military said, adding that the civilians killed or injured “were likely inside the buildings from which the Taliban were fighting.”

But residents of the village dispute that account. One resident, Jamaluddin, said in an interview in November that everyone had been asleep when the troops arrived, and that the bombing lasted for five hours.

In 2015, U. S. aircraft carried out an hours-long air assault on a Kunduz hospital managed by the humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders, killing 42 people.