The United States is investigating whether civilians may have been killed in an airstrike it launched to destroy a car laden with explosives in the Afghan capital Kabul.
CNN reported that nine members of a family, including six children, were killed in Sunday's airstrike in the crowded capital, where thousands of Afghans are still trying to flee the Taliban.
Local media also reported that civilians were killed in the strike.
John Kirby, Press Secretary for the United States Department of Defense, told reporters on Monday authorities were looking into the reports.
“If we have verifiable information that we did, in fact, take innocent life here, then we will be transparent about that. Nobody wants to see that happen,” he said.
“But you know what else we didn't want to see happen? We didn't want to see happen what we believe to be a very real, a very specific and a very imminent threat to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and to our troops operating at that airport, as well as civilians around it and in it.”
It came after US Central Command spokesman, Captain Bill Urban, issued a statement saying CENTCOM was aware of reports of civilian casualties.
"We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport," he said, using an acronym for the Afghan branch of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, which carried out a suicide attack at the airport on Thursday.
"We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties," Urban continued. "It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further.
"We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," he said.
The US airstrike came after a suicide bomber from IS on Thursday targeted huge crowds of people from entering the airport as they try to flee the new Taliban regime.
The car that was destroyed by the US strike had been headed for Kabul's airport, a Taliban spokesman had said earlier Sunday.
About 114,000 people have been evacuated since 15 August, when the Taliban swept back into power. The American withdrawal from Afghanistan is due to be completed by Tuesday.
