US troops kill two Afghan civilians: Interior ministry

US troops have shot and killed at least two Afghan civilians outside the capital of Kabul, Afghanistan Interior Ministry says.

The Afghans were killed on Monday as their truck approached an American convoy in the area.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqi said that the two were employees of a company responsible for repairing police vehicles.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for US-led forces, Jamie Graybeal, said the American soldiers only took “appropriate measures to protect themselves,” as the truck failed to regrad instructions to stop as it approached the convoy.

Earlier in the day, an Afghan police officer opened fire inside a police headquarters in Maidan Wardak province, killing two US forces and seven Afghan forces.

On March 2, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that the US-led Australian forces killed two Afghan children in the country’s central province of Uruzgan.

Many civilians have lost their lives in US-led operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past months, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged at the seemingly endless number of the deadly assaults.

The issue of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is highly sensitive and has been a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and the United States.