An airstrike on a compound in southwestern Afghanistan killed at least six civilians, a local tribal leader said Thursday, after the US military reported that ground forces were coming under fire from inside the residence and called in aircraft. In Helmand province, local tribal leader Ghulam Mohammad Khan said a farmer, his wife and four children were among nine dead in the airstrike Wednesday evening. He said three guests at the compound also died, but he did not know their identities. In Logar province, in eastern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the governor said villagers claimed a US operation overnight killed an innocent shopkeeper and complained that American forces had wrongly detained three civilians. Din Mohammad Darwesh, the spokesman, said villagers were refusing to bury the shopkeeper's body, in order to prove his innocence, and demanding the release of the three men. Also Thursday, a US military helicopter made an emergency landing after coming under rocket-propelled grenade fire in Nangahar province, US spokeswoman Capt. Regina Willis said.
