The boy was treated for shrapnel wounds following clashes between U.S. Special Forces and suspected Taliban fighters in the Lejay area of Bahglan valley in the north of Helmand province, Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted a U.S. military spokesman as saying Saturday, February 15, 2003.

Details of the casualty were given as a delegation from the Afghan government headed for Helmand to investigate reports that at least 17 non-combatant deaths had been caused by the offensive, code-named Eagle Fury.

U.S. spokesman Colonel Roger King said the boy was taken Friday for treatment at Kandahar air base, a major coalition center in southern Afghanistan, while his father was seized for questioning.

"The boy's father brought him in for treatment by the Special Forces medics. During treatment, the child related that he had been with his father and other armed men on a ridge above Lejay, firing at U.S. forces."

"He said his father hid his rifle before bringing him to the medics," King told reporters at Bagram air base north of Kabul, the command center of U.S.-led military activities in Afghanistan.

He said the boy was in a stable condition while his father, believed to be linked to the former Taliban regime, was under the control of U.S. Special Forces.

"The incident is the only confirmed non-combatant casualty of operation Eagle Fury. Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants."

Shaky Security Situation

Also in February, Three unidentified persons fired three missiles at International Security Assistance Force' military bases in Kabul and a bomb went off in a U.N.-run demining center. A U.N. convoy was trapped in a firefight between an Afghan police patrol and people driving a truck loaded with explosives, leaving two Afghans killed.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said a delegation including Helmand deputy governor Haji Pir Mohammad had left the provincial capital Lashkargah to investigate the disputed civilian casualty claims.

Fazel Akbar said a second delegation from Helmand had also arrived in Kabul to discuss Eagle Fury, in which US and coalition warplanes pounded cave hideouts in the area with 500 and 2,000 pound (227 and 909 kilogram) bombs.

He said Karzai had told the delegation that he had held talks with coalition representatives and urged them to discontinue the raids, many of which took place during the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.

Meanwhile, King said there had been no clashes or bombing in the area for at least 18 hours, adding that US Special Forces had only been present in Bahgran at the invitation of Helmand authorities.

He said the five-day offensive, sparked by an ambush Monday in the valley, had claimed casualties among an opposing force numbering above 30, but would not reveal exact figures. So far 15 men have been detained.

King said he was aware that the government was sending a delegation, but the coalition had not been consulted.

"It is an indication that the Afghan government takes the allegations of civilian casualties seriously enough to check it out," he said.

Afghan authorities say up to 48 people were killed when a US bombing raid on June 30 in central Uruzgan province mistakenly targeted a wedding party.

Washington puts the toll from the incident much lower.

The latest fighting in Helmand comes only days after the conclusion of an offensive near the southern border town of Spin Boldak which the US says left 18 anti-government fighters dead.

Taliban issued last week a rare statement urging Afghans to participate in a jihad (holy war) against US-led coalition forces based in the country.

It said the group considered the possible US attack on Iraq as a continuation of the crusades against Muslims and an onslaught on Islam, the BBC News Online reported.

A senior Taleban leader, requesting anonymity, later confirmed that the communique was drafted on the directive of their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Addressed to the "Muslim and Mujahid nation of Afghanistan," the communique accused the US of committing aggression against their homeland and turning it into a colony.