Rights group: US killed 34 Afghan civilians

A human rights group estimated that 34 civilians died earlier last week in a US airstrike on a southern village–double the official toll. Abdul Qadar Noorzai, the director of the Kandahar office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said Afghans who had fled their small village of Azizi told him that about 25 family members died in one mud-brick home and that nine other civilians perished in the village's religious school during a strike this week by US warplanes. Noorzai said he hasn't been able to visit the village to take a survey of the civilian deaths because security forces have cordoned off the area. Villagers reported burying about 35 "unknown people"–meaning militants from outside their area, he said. About 11 civilians were wounded, he said. The estimate of 34 civilian deaths more than doubled the number given by the governor of Kandahar and President Hamid Karzai, who said that 16 people had died. The US-led coalition has said their estimate was in line with the governor's. Sgt. Chris Miller, a coalition spokesman, said he wasn't aware of a new estimate, and that the coalition figure had not changed. The coalition has said that up to 80 militants were killed, although 60 of those deaths were unconfirmed. Karzai has called for an investigation into the airstrike and urged the top US commander in Afghanistan to make "every effort" to ensure civilians' safety. The US military has said it takes "extraordinary measures" to protect Afghan civilians, but that Taliban militants were firing on coalition forces from inside the villagers' homes, and that troops had the right to return fire in defense.