A joint U.S.-Afghan statement said that heavy fighting took place in two villages in Farah province over several hours Monday and Tuesday. It said U.S. forces responded to a call for help from Afghan forces, and that militants attacked the troops from several locations around the two villages.
It said troops called for airstrikes on the militant positions.
"The investigation suggests that villagers had taken refuge in a number of houses in each village. Reports also indicate that Taliban fighters deliberately forced villagers into houses from which they then attacked ANSF (Afghan security forces) and Coalition forces," a statement from the U.S. coalition said.
Neither the U.S. nor Afghan forces took responsibility for killing civilians in Saturday's statement, but appeared to lay the blame on militants.
"The joint investigation team strongly condemns the brutality of the Taliban extremists deliberately targeting Afghan civilians and using them as human shields," the statement said.
Abdul Basir Khan, a member of Farah's provincial council, said Friday that he collected the names of 147 people killed in fighting in two villages in Farah's Bala Baluck district. Other Afghan officials have said that dozens of civilians died in the battle, but a U.S. spokeswoman had called such reports "extremely over-exaggerated."
The U.S.-Afghan team of investigators visited the two villages this week and saw two mass graves and one burial site with seven individual graves, the joint U.S.-Afghan statement said.
