A US-led coalition military operation in western Afghanistan on Friday killed 76 civilians, including 50 children and 19 women, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

The coalition confirmed it carried out an operation that included air strikes in the western province of Herat in which 30 Taliban rebels were killed but denied civilian deaths, said a report published in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

Nineteen of the victims were women, seven of them men and the rest children under the age of 15, a ministry statement said.

'The ministry, while expressing its profound regret, has sent a delegation of 10 people to the area and more details will be announced once the investigation is completed,' it said.

If the death toll is confirmed it would be one of the highest civilian deaths in the battle against Taliban.

But the coalition said 30 insurgents were killed in clashes and air strikes that followed an ambush on Afghan National Army and coalition troops as they were going to arrest a Taliban commander.

A 'known' Taliban commander was among the dead, it said. Two civilians were wounded.

'No other civilian or friendly casualties were reported,' the coalition said.

Asked about the ministry statement, US First Lieutenant Nathan Perry said: 'I definitely do not have any reports of a large amount of civilian casualties - and we don't have any reports of civilian casualties at all.'

The Afghan army said five civilians - three women and two children - had died. - TradeArabia News Service