Killing civilians is a great concern for the people and the government of Afghanistan and the people would not tolerate harming non-combatants, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said on Wednesday.

"Afghans would not tolerate inflicting casualties on civilians in the war against terrorists," Azimi said at a joint press conference with the spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Wayne Shanks.

Azimi's comments came in the wake of the reportedly killing of 10 civilians by NATO forces in Narang district of eastern Kunar province last Saturday night.

"Our reaction is clear, Defense Ministry condemns any kind of civilians' causalities," he said.

Speaking at the press conference, Shanks said that investigation is underway to find out the fact."But I can guarantee that we do take our allegation seriously and we work very hard to prevent any civilian casualty," he stressed.

Blaming Taliban insurgents for killing Afghan civilians, Shanks said "I just want to add if you see the recent UNAMA report on civilian casualties, it indicates that the majority of casualties are cause by insurgents in Afghanistan."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while strongly condemning the killing civilians, has tasked a delegation to initiate probe into the case and bring to justice those responsible.

Eight out of those killed in the incident were school children, according to locals.

To condemn the bloody incident, hundreds of people came to the streets in the eastern city of Jalalabad and capital city Kabul Wednesday, calling on the government to punish those behind the attack.

Skirmishes and Taliban-led insurgency have claimed the lives of more than 2,000 civilians in the first 10 months of 2009, against some 1,800 for the same period last year, according to a latest U. N. report.

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