The NATO-led force and Afghan authorities said Monday a joint investigation had concluded that eight civilians were killed during a recent battle with insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

Seventeen other civilians were wounded in the February 23 incident in the Sangin district of Helmand, said a joint statement issued by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the provincial government.

"On February 23, in Gul Agha Sheli village, they (insurgents) ambushed an ISAF patrol, which defended itself as the attack continued for a few hours.

"Regretfully, as a result of this engagement, eight people were killed and 17 people were injured," the statement said.

"There were also casualties inflicted on the enemy," it added.

The provincial government in Helmand has requested "financial help and assistance" for the victims and ISAF has accepted, the statement said.

Civilian casualties are a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan where about 70,000 foreign troops are deployed in order to help the Western-backed government in Kabul fight an increasingly bloody insurgency.

The deaths of civilians during foreign military operations are a major cause of friction between Washington and the US-backed administration in Kabul.

On February 21, the US-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed that 13 civilians were killed in an air strike in the western province of Herat.

The Taliban, a hardcore Islamist movement that was in power between 1996 and 2001, are trying to topple the Kabul government through an insurgency which last year was at its deadliest since the US-led invasion in late 2001.

earlier related report
Four Danish soldiers hurt in Afghanistan bomb blasts
Four Danish soldiers were wounded in the explosion of two roadside bombs in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan Monday, military officials said.

Three troops were hurt when their armoured vehicle hit a home-made explosive device south of Price base, the Danish military leadership said in a statement.

They were rescued from their blazing vehicle.

Another soldier suffered injuries about an hour later when his tank hit a device near Armadillo base.

The four soldiers whose wounds were described as minor were taken to the hospital at Camp Bastion where Danish troops in Helmand province are headquartered under British command.

Denmark has deployed some 700 troops as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, most of them in Helmand.

There are nearly 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan helping the government fight an extremist insurgency led by the Taliban, who were in power between 1996 and 2001.

Twenty-one Danes have died since their country joined the campaign in late 2001.