Air raids against suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in Ghazni province, south of Afghanistan, however, claimed the lives of eight civilians including two women, a member of the Provincial Council Abdul Nabi said Wednesday.

In talks with media, Nabi added that the raids took place at 3 a.m. local time (2330 GMT) in Gero district during which eight non-combatants were killed.

The victims, he added, include two women, two children and four men.

However, the U.S.-led Coalition forces admitted in a statement that "during this engagement, a ricocheting round killed a civilian female."

It added that several armed enemy combatants were killed in the operation and Coalition forces found grenades and rifles in their hideout.

Civilian casualties became a sensitive issue in war-plagued Afghanistan while the new NATO commander, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, has issued the revised directives recently to avoid deaths of non-combatants during the anti-Taliban operations.

Source: Xinhua