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Coalition forces killed 16 civilians in a shooting spree in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Sunday (March 11), the defence ministry said, in an incident likely to deepen the growing divide between Washington and Kabul.
But a US official says only one U.S. soldier appears to have been involved in the shootings.
An Afghan minister earlier told Reuters that a lone U.S. soldier had killed up to 16 people when he burst into homes in villages near his base in the middle of the night.
Panjwayi district is about 35 km (22 miles) west of the provincial capital Kandahar city. The district is considered the spiritual home of the Taliban.
