More than 100 dead in fighting in western region - cause of death disputed

Police in Afghanistan said on May 6 that more than 100 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in clashes between Taliban insurgents and Afghan troops supported by US air power, in one of the deadliest battles in nearly eight years. "Dozens of people were killed, including women and children," International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Barry told Agence France Presse. One of the dead was a community volunteer for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, who was killed along with 13 members of his family, she said. "During the aerial bombardment and ground operations, more than 100 people have died," western Afghanistan police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told Agence France Presse, basing his information on reports from police, the Red Cross and locals. "Twenty-five to 30 of them are Taliban, including from Chechnya and Pakistan, and the rest are civilians including children, women and elderly people," he said. Deputy Farah provincial governor Mohammad Younus Rasouli said he had seen the bodies of 20 children brought by villagers to the provincial capital, also called Farah. In Kabul UN envoy Kai Eide said he was "seriously concerned" and was in close contact with the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, as investigations proceeded. The US strikes were launched after Afghan authorities asked for help in a clash with Taliban militants who had beheaded three civilians, said McKiernan. President Barack Obama pledged later in the day that the United States would make every effort to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan, following talks in Washington with Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. "I made it clear that the United States will work with our Afghan and international partners to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties," Obama said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said meanwhile that the United States "deeply, deeply regretted" the loss of civilian life. "We don't know all of the circumstances or causes. And there will be a joint investigation by your government and ours," she told a meeting with Karzai earlier. The US military, which initially said five to seven civilians and 30-35 Taliban were killed, reassessed their findings after an outcry, finding 33 civilians and 22 militants died. The US military opened an investigation into the operation, as Gen. McKiernan voiced doubts about whether it was an American airstrike that caused the tragedy. "We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties," McKiernan said. A senior U.S. defense official said that Marine special operations forces believe the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban militants, who then loaded some of the bodies into a vehicle and drove them around the village, claiming the dead were victims of the American airstrike. A second U.S. official said a senior Taliban commander is believed to have ordered the grenade attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information. Two other senior defense officials said the grenade report comes from villagers interviewed by U.S. investigators who went to the site, but there is no proof yet that the report is right.