In other news from Afghanistan, Al Jazeera reports at least eight Afghan civilians have been killed in an air raid by foreign forces in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province. Meanwhile, protests were held in several Afghan cities Wednesday over reports that international forces killed ten civilians, including many schoolboys, in an attack earlier in the week. NATO officials have denied civilians were killed, but Afghan investigators said nearly all those killed were school-age boys. In a statement released yesterday, President Hamid Karzai’s office said that a unit of international forces descended from a plane Sunday night into Ghazi Khan village and took ten people from three homes. Karzai’s office said all of the people detained were shot dead.