US may have killed up to 50 in Afghanistan

Women and children among victims:

US-led strikes in Afghanistan may have left as many as 50 people killed, CNN television reported after the US military called claims of a death toll of 100 “exaggerated.”

US military and Afghan Defence and Interior Ministry teams returned from the area in the western province of Farah early yesterday and were still going through their findings, Colonel Greg Julian told AFP earlier in Afghanistan.

They had expected to release a report on their joint investigation yesterday but this was pushed back to today to include results of a separate probe appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he said.

Although he acknowledged civilian deaths, Julian refused to comment on reports from Washington citing US officials that investigators had found US air strikes had killed villagers.

“The conclusion from the investigation has not been reached, and it’s inappropriate to indicate one way or the other how (civilian deaths) were caused.”

One of the issues being looked into was whether the Taliban had caused the civilian casualties by throwing grenades among villagers, he said. Afghan police have told AFP that more than 100 people were killed, about 25 to 30 of them insurgents and the remainder civilians, including elderly people and children.

A member of the Farah council, Abdul Basir Khair Khowa, said he had been to the area and was told by locals that 147 civilians were killed.

But CNN television reported that up to 50 people were killed in the attacks.

“Pentagon officials are telling CNN the preliminary conclusions, perhaps as many as 50 people killed in those strikes, including men, women and children, civilians,” the network said.

While “they are trying to determine still how many civilians ... now the US says civilians were most likely killed in those strikes,” the report added.

US forces “dropped some 13 bombs on eight different buildings, a mixture of 500 pound, 1,000 pound bombs. ... (Pentagon officials) say these buildings were in the middle of poppy fields and wheat fields, not in villages and towns and it was from those buildings they say the troops were taking fire,” the report added.

AFP