The United Nations confirmed Monday that ten children were among at least 13 civilians killed by a recent American military airstrike in northern Afghanistan.

The deadly attack occurred early Saturday near the capital city of volatile Kunduz province where Afghan and U.S. forces were conducting a joint operation against Taliban insurgents.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) lamented the deaths while releasing preliminary findings of its investigation into the incident. It said work is ongoing to verify other reports of civilian casualties that occurred around the time of the airstrike.

“The Mission expresses serious concern that initial fact-finding indicates that 10 of those killed were children, part of the same extended family whom were displaced by fighting elsewhere in the country,” said UNAMA.

Officials and residents around the conflict zone said that insurgents had strongly resisted the joint Afghan-U.S. military raid in the Taliban-held Telawka neighborhood. The ensuing clashes killed two American soldiers and several local commando forces, prompting the U.S. military to launch the airstrike in support of forces on the ground.

U.S. officials confirmed the killing of two service members and carrying out an airstrike in the area, accusing the Taliban of using civilian areas as hideouts.

UNAMA urged parties involved in the airstrike to conduct their own enquiries into the incident and take immediate steps to safeguard civilians from harm. “Parties are urged to publish results of their findings, as well as provide appropriate compensation to victims.”

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. The armed conflict last year killed more than 3,800 civilians, including 927 children, the highest number of civilian deaths recorded in the past ten years, according to UNAMA.

The mission documented a sharp increase in civilian casualties in 2018 from aerial and search operations conducted by Afghan and U.S. militaries, blaming pro-government forces for an unprecedented 24 percent overall increase in civilian casualties.

Battlefield hostilities in Afghanistan have sharply increased with the advent of spring. The Taliban has inflicted heavy casualties on government forces in several provinces over the past few days.

The deadliest of the attacks occurred early Saturday in Sangin district of the southern Helmand province, killing at least 65 Afghan forces, including 48 military personnel.

The intensification in the war comes as Taliban and U.S. officials are due to reconvene soon to build on the progress they have achieved in recent negotiations to try to find a political resolution of the war.</s>KABUL (Reuters) - Ten children, part of the same extended family, were killed by a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan, along with three adult civilians, the United Nations said on Monday.

The air strike early on Saturday was part of a battle between the Taliban and combined Afghan and U.S. forces that lasted about 30 hours in Kunduz, a northern province where the Taliban insurgency is strong.

The children and their family had been displaced by fighting elsewhere in the country, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said, releasing its preliminary findings about the incident. UNAMA said in a statement that it is verifying that all 13 civilian casualties occurred around the time of the air strike.

Three other civilians were wounded. The incident happened in the Telawka neighborhood near Kunduz city.

Sgt. Debra Richardson, spokeswoman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, confirmed that U.S. forces carried out an air strike, but she said on Monday that the mission still had not confirmed that it had caused civilian casualties.

She said the mission aims to prevent civilian casualties, while the Taliban intentionally hides among civilians.

A record number of Afghan civilians were killed last year as aerial attacks and suicide bombings increased, the United Nations said in a February report. Child casualties from air strikes have increased every year since 2014.

Fighting has accelerated during a period of recurring talks between U.S. and Taliban officials aimed at ending Afghanistan’s 17-year war.</s>At least 13 civilians, mostly children, were killed in an airstrike by international troops in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz province over the weekend, the United Nations mission in the war-torn country said Monday.

Denouncing the civilian casualties, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement urged the authorities to probe the tragedy and take steps to ensure civilians are not harmed during military operations.</s>The United Nations said Monday that "international military forces" killed 13 civilians, 10 of whom were children, in an airstrike near Kunduz city in Afghanistan.

The United States, as Agence France-Presse reported, "is the only member of the international coalition in Afghanistan that provides air support in the conflict."

The children that were killed in the weekend strike were all part of the same extended family who had been displaced because of violence in another part of the county, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan's (UNAMA) preliminary findings on the incident.

Three other civilians were wounded in the strike, UNAMA said.

In a statement quoted by the New York Times, Richardson blamed the Taliban for the casualties. "The Taliban were hiding in civilian homes and maneuvered in and out of compounds without any concern for the families living inside," she said.

According to the Times, the incident broke out

after a convoy of American and Afghan Special Forces left the area of the previous day’s combat and an armored vehicle used by the Americans broke down as they were heading to a security checkpoint. When the soldiers got out to fix the vehicle, an Afghan soldier nearby opened fire on them; Afghan officials described him as a Taliban insider who deliberately provoked the attack. The Americans fired back at the attacker, and Afghan soldiers stationed in a nearby outpost returned fire at them, not realizing what had happened, according to Mohammed Ibrahim, the commander of Afghan Local Police in Kunduz Province, who described it as an accident set off by the insider who first opened fire.

Americans ordered the airstrikes after roughly 20 minutes of crossfire, the Times reported.

The deadly bombing comes a month after the release of a U.N. report showing that 2018 saw the highest number of Afghan civilians killed in the war since records began a decade ago. Of the 3,804 civilian deaths, the report said, 927 were children.

The report also put blame on U.S. airstrikes for 393 of the total deaths, and noted that casualties from airstrikes have increased every year since 2014.</s>Ten children, part of the same extended family, were killed by a US air strike in Afghanistan, along with three adult civilians, the United Nations said on Monday.

The air strike early on Saturday was part of a battle between the Taliban and combined Afghan and US forces that lasted about 30 hours in Kunduz, a northern province where the Taliban is strong.

The children and their family had been displaced by fighting elsewhere in the country, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in releasing its preliminary findings about the incident. UNAMA said in a statement that it is verifying that all 13 civilian casualties occurred around the time of the air strike.

Three other civilians were injured. The incident happened in the Telawka neighbourhood near Kunduz city.

Sgt. Debra Richardson, spokeswoman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, confirmed on Sunday that US forces carried out the air strike. She said the mission aims to prevent civilian casualties, while the Taliban intentionally hides among civilians.

A record number of Afghan civilians were killed last year as aerial attacks and suicide bombings increased, the United Nations said in a February report. Child casualties from air strikes have increased every year since 2014.

Fighting has accelerated during a period of recurring talks between U.S. and Taliban officials aimed at ending Afghanistan's 17-year war.

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A United States airstrike in Afghanistan early Saturday kills 10 children and 3 adults. The family was displaced because of the conflict according to early findings by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.