Sixteen civilians were killed in eastern Afghanistan Sunday when a US convoy was ambushed and troops returned fire, the US-led coalition said

As the government said the soldiers killed 10 people.
The coalition did not specify how many were killed in the suicide attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar and how many in the subsequent gunfire from the soldiers. A car bomb struck the convoy "as part of a complex ambush involving enemy small-arms fire from several directions," it said in a statement. "Coalition forces returned fire in defence of the patrol. Sixteen civilians died during the initial attack, including four civilians who later died of their wounds. Twenty-four civilians were wounded during the attack." A coalition soldier was also wounded. A spokesman confirmed that the casualties were from the ambush and the return fire. "It was throughout the entire attack," he told AFP. Asked how many were killed in the ambush and how many in the subsequent coalition fire, he said the incident was being investigated. The Afghan interior ministry said the troops killed 10 civilians. A suicide bomber smashed and detonated an explosives-filled car into a coalition convoy in Nangarhar which killed a number of our countrymen," it said in a statement. According to the coalition forces, they came under fire following the blast and as a result of return fire, 10 of our countrymen were killed and 25 others were wounded. Hundreds of Afghans gathered at the scene, on the main road between the capital Kabul and the border with Pakistan, to demonstrate their anger. The incident was the second involving a high number of civilian casualties in under a week. On Tuesday around 16 Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bombing at a US military base near Kabul as it was being visited by US Vice President Dick Cheney.