Afghanistan army helicopter at the scene
SKY NEWS
A NATO airstrike has killed a family of eight, including six children, in their home in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia, the country's officials have said.
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating the claims, reports Sky News.
A local government spokesman, Rohullah Samoon, said the man killed did not have a link to the Taliban.
"Eight people, a man, his wife and six of their children, are dead. It was an air strike conducted by NATO.
"This man had no connection to the Taliban or any other terrorist group," he said.
A senior security official in Kabul also confirmed the incident.
"It's true. A house was bombed by NATO. A man named Mohammad Sahfee, his wife and six of their innocent children were brutally killed," he said.
The death of civilians caught in crossfire is an issue that threatens to sour relations between the US-led NATO coalition forces and the Afghan President.
Earlier this month, Hamid Karzai warned that civilian casualties could undermine the strategic partnership agreement he had just signed with US President Barack Obama.
He argued that the deaths caused by allied troops turn the Afghan people against his Western-backed government.
"If the lives of Afghan people are not safe, the signing of the strategic partnership has no meaning," the President's office said.
The amount of civilians killed in war has risen steadily for the past five years according to UN statistics.
It reached a record of 3,021 deaths in 2011 - the majority caused by militants, the UN said.
NATO plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. It currently has around 130,000 troops in the country, mostly from the US.