American Military Thugs still killing women and children in name of Freedom.

Local residents protesting against a Nato raid in the village of Qal’eh-ye Allah Nazar. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP

Fury erupted in eastern Afghanistan today after US soldiers were once again accused of killing civilians during a night raid on a private house.

The assault on the compound in the village of Qal'eh-ye Allah Nazar in Nangahar province occurred at about 1am, leaving several people dead.

Officials said it was an intelligence-led operation and that eight people had been killed during a shootout, including a Taliban sub-commander. Weapons had been recovered from the compound, they said.

That was not how the incident was seen by family members, neighbours and the local population, 500 of whom demonstrated outside the office of the governor of Surkh Rod district. One person was reported by locals to have been killed and two injured after the crowd tried to enter the government buildings.

Ahmad Zia Ab-razai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 14 civilians had been "murdered" and three injured. He said local authorities had started an investigation and had been in contact with US forces, who are usually responsible for mounting night operations, and was told they were looking for a Taliban commander called Shamsul Rahman.

Mohammad Rafi, 38, a member of the family whose mother and son were killed, said he was in bed when US soldiers, some of whom had climbed over the high mud walls of the traditional fort-like building, entered the compound. "They shouted out that they were coming to search the building, but then they entered the rooms and shot everyone they found, one by one," he said.

This year Stanley McChrystal, the overall commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, has taken steps to reduce the number of night raids, which are one of the key causes of anger towards foreigners.

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has called for a ban, but McChrystal has reserved the right to continue using the controversial technique.

The issue of civilian causalities was at the top of Karzai's agenda during meetings this week in Washington with Barack Obama and other senior US administration officials.

Some incidents involving night raids have subsequently been revealed as disastrous mistakes, launched on the basis of faulty intelligence.

The leading theory among villagers was that spies or simply disgruntled locals had fed false information to the US military.

Abdul Hussain, a relative of the dead who lives in the same village, said it was widely assumed that the Americans were using weak intelligence.

He said: "These people were totally innocent. They had no connection with the Taliban but they were killed because of spies. It is very possible that because of the land they owned and their wealth that there could have been a family dispute.

"President Karzai has promised many times that he would stop these incidents, but nothing ever happens. All we want is for the government to find the spy and bring him to justice."