Afghanistan, March 23 -- A day after Afghan armed forces inflicted heavy casualties on Taliban militants in Kunduz, reports emerging from the province suggest that the fighters of Taliban are coercing and beating local residents to allege civilian casualties during the operations.

A Resolute Support spokeswoman SFC Debra Richardson said "There are multiple Afghan reports from the area of the Taliban coercing and beating local Afghan civilians to allege civilians were killed. We have seen this type of reporting in other places as the Taliban attempt to hide their losses by accusing ANDSF and coalition of causing civilians casualties."

Richardson further added "We are aware of non-combatant casualty claims from those airstrikes. We take a...