Amsterdam  - The Dutch military Thursday said it deplored the loss of civilian lives as a result of an air strike carried out by one of its F-16 fighter planes in Afghanistan.

Dutch military chief of staff Peter van Uhm, speaking in Kabul, said however the responsibility for the civilian casualties lied with the Taliban, not with NATO. He emphasized the Dutch pilot observed all regulations.

Van Uhm could not confirm that a total of nine civilians, some of them children, had died in the attack earlier in the day in the suburbs of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the Helmand province.

The air strike came after continued ground battles between troops of NATO's International Security and Assistance forces and Taliban fighters.  dpa