The US military said on Thursday that American and Afghan forces killed several insurgents during an extended patrol in southern Afghanistan where villagers say that about 40 civilians in a wedding party were killed.

Insurgents attacked a coalition patrol that was moving through the Shah Wali Kot region of Kandahar province between Monday and Wednesday, the US military said in a statement.

Civilians "reportedly attempted to leave the area, but the insurgents forced them to remain," the statement said. It did not say where the US got that report from. It quoted Kandahar's police chief as saying several civilians were injured while attempting to leave the area.

The statement said it was "unclear if they were the victims of the high volume of insurgent direct and indirect fire." It did not say precisely how many insurgents the US forces killed.

Villagers in Wech Baghtu said that about 37 people, mostly women and children, died in a Monday afternoon bombing run by jetfighters after US forces and Taliban fighters battled nearby. That home was hosting a wedding party at the time, the reason so many people died, the villagers said.

President Hamid Karzai's office said about 40 people died and 28 were wounded. Karzai on Wednesday called on US President-elect Barack Obama to ensure that Afghan civilians are not killed in operations by US forces.

The US military said on Wednesday that it was investigating, and a US spokesman added that "if innocent people were killed in this operation, we apologise and express our condolences."

In one of the most serious cases of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, an Afghan government commission found that a US operation in August in western Afghanistan killed some 90 civilians.

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US airstrike kills 40 civilians in Afghanistan