“Unfortunately eight women, four children, and one man were killed in a NATO airstrike on a residential house in Dowamanda district (of Khost) early this morning,” AFP quoted provincial police chief Mohamad Zazai as saying.In the past 24 hours, foreign forces have killed at least 17 civilians across Afghanistan — many of them women and children.

Following the US-led military attack, a large crowd of Afghans held an angry protest rally against the foreign forces.

The developments come as US-led attacks continue to claim civilian lives in Afghanistan. Earlier, a NATO air attack killed two children in Ghazni province.

In early March, a US-led air strike claimed the lives of nine children, aged between seven and nine, in Darah-Ye Pech district in Kunar province in northeast Afghanistan.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the US-led airstrikes and ground operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led foreign forces. The loss of civilian lives at the hands of foreign forces has drastically raised anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

The surge in violence in the country comes despite the presence of nearly 150,000 foreign troops that claim to be engaged in a so-called war on terror.

The US-led war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record highs, has become the longest war in the US history.