An airstrike of the U.S.-led Coalition forces Friday in Sindand district of Heart province in western Afghanistan killed 76 civilians including women and children, the Afghan interior ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement that it has started investigation into the huge civilian casualties caused by international forces' air bombing.

The government-run RTA television quoted a member of parliament said there were up to 80 civilians, majority of whom are women and children, died in the Coalition airstrike.

Earlier, the Coalition forces said in a statement that the Afghan National Army and the U.S.-led Coalition forces Friday killed 30 militants as their combined patrol was ambushed in Sindand district. It added that two local nationals were wounded in the crossfire between troops and militants and there were no other civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths in foreign troops-led operations has been a very sensitive issue in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeatedly asked the international forces to evade killing civilians during fighting militants.

According to UN figures, some 698 Afghan civilians died in the first half of year 2008, of which 422 were killed by anti- government elements and 255 were killed by Afghan government or international military forces.

The civilian death toll in Afghan violence has been more than 1, 000 so far this year, according to reports.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2008)