An Afghan member of parliament has been assassinated in Kandahar province, officials have said.

Habibullah Jan was shot dead after visiting an Afghan army base in Zhari district, where Taleban militants have been active, the officials said.

He was a military commander in the area before being elected to parliament.

The news came as the US and Afghan officials gave conflicting reports of an air strike which locals said had left 22 people dead.

The Afghan officials said the dead in eastern Nuristan province were civilians but the US said it had targeted militants.

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"The militants were moving in two vehicles when coalition attack helicopters were used to destroy [them] killing the combatants," the US statement said.

It said there were no reports of civilian casualties, without giving any other details of militant casualties.

Afghan officials said civilians were in the two vehicles and that 22 people were killed, including a woman and a child.

"The civilians were evacuating the district as they were told by the US-led troops to do so because they wanted to launch an operation against the Taleban," a district chief in Nuristan province, Zia-ul Rahman, said.

There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's Isaf command.

More than 8,000 people were estimated to have been killed in insurgent-related violence in Afghanistan last year - the most since the Taleban were toppled in 2001 - Associated Press news agency said.

(BBC)

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