The Associated Press

Thu, Jan 8, 2009 (5:18 a.m.)

Afghanistan's president said Thursday that 17 civilians were killed during clashes between U.S.-led troops and insurgents. The American military insisted all 32 killed in the fighting were militants.

Civilian deaths are a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and foreign troops here, and the latest claims threatened to worsen the tensions.

The Western-backed president's shaky standing among Afghans has been further undermined by a string of reported civilian deaths in coalition operations. The killings have also damaged the reputation of foreign forces among ordinary citizens just as the troops are struggling to contain an increasingly virulent Taliban-led insurgency.

In a statement, Karzai blamed the "terrorists" for using civilians as human shields in their battles with foreign troops, but also repeated a demand that coalition troops stop fighting in Afghan villages. The U.S. military, however, said that all those killed in Tuesday's battle were militants involved with a bomb-making cell in eastern Laghman province.

"We held (a meeting) with local government officials after the operation, and all local Afghan leaders confirmed that all 32 killed in this operation were hostile militants," said Col. Jerry O'Hara, a U.S. military spokesman.

International forces have said they recently revised rules guiding their operations against insurgents throughout the country in order to minimize civilian casualties, but have not disclosed those changes publicly for the sake of their troops' security.

O'Hara said that if there is new information regarding the operation in Laghman province, "we will always consider it."

Australia's Defense Force said Thursday that it, too, was investigating claims that its troops had injured or killed civilians in central Uruzgan province during a series of battles between Taliban insurgents and NATO forces.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry has said 11 civilians were killed in the fighting Sunday and Monday. NATO has said it was only able to confirm nine injured civilians.

There were 1,160 civilians killed in insurgency-related incidents in 2008, according to an AP casualty count _ 368 by foreign and Afghan troops and 768 by the Taliban. Another 26 were caught in crossfire.

Separately, NATO said a roadside bomb killed one of its soldiers in the southern Kandahar province on Wednesday.

In 2008, 286 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan, up from 222 the previous year.

Violence in Afghanistan has skyrocketed in the last two years, and the U.S. has said it will deploy an extra 20,000 troops to combat the Taliban insurgents.

More U.S. troops _ 151 _ died in Afghanistan in 2008 than in any other year since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban, and U.S. officials have warned the violence will probably intensify in the coming year.

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Associated Press reporter Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this story.