At least 25 Taliban insurgents were killed in US-led air strikes in western Afghanistan this week but the number of civilian dead was not confirmed, the top US military commander said Wednesday.
Afghan police have said 100 people, most of them civilians, died in the strikes and ground fighting in the western province of Farah overnight Monday to Tuesday.
US General David McKiernan told reporters that the "allegations" of civilian deaths were under investigation.
According to reports from US Marines in the area and Afghan authorities, "25 plus" Taliban insurgents were killed in the air strikes in Bala Buluk district, he said.
"We don't have a confirmed number of civilian casualties," he added.
The strikes were launched after Afghan authorities asked for help in a clash with Taliban militants who had beheaded three civilians, said McKiernan, who commands the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
"They beheaded three civilians in that village they went into. The police responded to that. That might have been a trigger to ambush the police," he said.
The police asked for back-up from the Afghan army and then later the governor of the province requested US military help, he said.
"The US did respond with support, to include close air support. That contact went on into the evening."
But McKiernan said the picture regarding civilian casualties was unclear.
"We have some information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties," he added.
He did not offer further details but said he was "hopeful" that initial results of an investigation would be out in the next few days.
The civilian toll from US air strikes in Afghanistan has become a growing source of tension between Kabul and Washington and has fuelled an angry public reaction.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement he would raise the Farah incident in a meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a meeting with Karzai meanwhile that the United States deeply regretted loss of civilian life in Afghanistan.
Source: AFP American Edition
