Five children, two boys and three girls, all from a single family, have been killed in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. The locals alleged an air-strike by the government forces killed all of them, TOLOnews reported. 

The incident happened in Lashkargah city, the provincial centre of Helmand, on Wednesday night. The family was recently settled in the city. In the last three months, Lashkargah saw continuous fighting between the government forces and the Taliban. 

Protesting against the killings, the locals staged the dead bodies in front of the provincial governor compound. “My two daughters and three sons were martyred, five more people were wounded, we are here now and don’t know what to do,” Juma Khan, the grieving father, was quoted as saying by TOLOnews.

Provincial governor Abdul Nabi Elham is yet to confirm the incident. He said it is yet to be confirmed if the children died in a mortar attack or in the airstrike. Meanwhile, Atullah Afghan, a member of the provincial council, confirmed that the children died in the incident. 

Afghan also asked the Taliban not to make houses of residents as fighting positions. 

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported 5,939 civilian casualties in the first nine months of 2020. Though the number dropped by around 30 percent, the casualty attributed to the Taliban remained almost the same corresponding to the same period in 2019.