A coalition operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan killed three civilians but no militants, a police official said Sunday.
Insurgents elsewhere killed a woman in charge of female police officers.
Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief in the eastern province of Kunar, said airstrikes hit a compound in the Asmar district of Kunar province.
However, U.S. coalition spokesman Capt. Scott Miller said the only operation overnight was one in the district north of Asmar, in Nari. Miller said a coalition patrol was attacked and artillery strikes were called in. Miller said no airstrikes were used and that no deaths were reported by coalition forces in the exchange.
It wasn't clear if the two officials were talking about the same event or if the exchange was late Saturday or early Sunday.
Civilian deaths is a highly sensitive topic in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has long pleaded with international troops to avoid civilian deaths in its operations.
The Afghan government and United Nations say an Aug. 22 U.S. operation killed some 90 civilians in the western province of Herat, a strike that strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
An original U.S. investigation found that up to 35 militants and seven civilians were killed in that strike. But a new investigation was opened — and is now under way — after video images emerged appearing to show many more dead than the U.S. had acknowledged.
In other violence, two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed the woman police officer in charge of female police in the southern province of Kandahar, said Zalmai Ayubi, the governor's spokesman.
Malalai Kakar, 41, was traveling from her home to the office Sunday when she was shot, he said. Her son, 18, was wounded in the attack, he said.
Militants frequently attack projects, schools and businesses run by women. The hardline Taliban regime, which was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, did not allow women outside the home without a male escort.
