KABUL: An Afghan official says villagers in southern Afghanistan brought approximately 30 mutilated bodies to a provincial capital to show that women and children had been killed by coalition airstrikes.

Abdul Basir Khan, a provincial council member in Farah province, says villagers were shouting and crying in front of the governor's office.

The villagers say fighting broke out between militants and Afghan and coalition forces Monday. In response, villagers gathered women, children and elderly men and put them in housing compounds away from the fighting.

However, the villagers say airstrikes hit those compounds.

The U.S. says its forces were involved in a battle and that claims of civilian casualties are being investigated.