KABUL (PAN): Up to 19 workers of a road-building company have been killed and wounded in the latest instance of stray bombing by foreign forces in the central province of Maidan Wardak, where Taliban insurgents have been active for years.

The fatalities resulted from an overnight bombardment of a village in Chak district, the provincial council chief told Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN) on Friday. One worker of the road construction firm was killed while 18 others sustained injuries in the raid.

Haji Hazrat Janan said seven vehicles were damaged in the airstrike. Five of the injured are in a critical condition in a Kabul hospital as the rest are being treated at a Chak health facility.

International troops and Taliban militants were still engaged in a fierce battle in the area, according to the provincial council chief, whose claim was also endorsed by a local resident and a government functionary.

The villager named Samiul Haq, giving an eyewitness account to this news agency over the telephone, said the casualties were caused by bombs dropped on labourers and security guards living in the house of Ustad Yaser in Nawabad.

Meanwhile, a government official, who did not want to be named, quoted an engineer with the company as saying that one labourer was killed and eight others were injured in the bombing. He also verified the ongoing fighting, but had no information about casualties.

hri/mud