Investigation opens after US air strikes in Afghanistan kill 100

POLICE in Afghanistan said yesterday that air strikes against insurgents had killed 100 people, most of them civilians.

Responding to the news, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US government “deeply, deeply” regretted the loss of innocent life. She was meeting the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington yesterday.

The US military opened an investigation into the operation on Tuesday in the western province of Farah, as Afghan president Hamid Karzai ordered a probe into reports of high civilian casualties.