'US air strike killed 10 Afghan civilians'

An American air strike in an Afghan village earlier this month killed 10 civilians, President Hamid Karzai said today

The US military had said it killed five militants during a January 17 raid against suspected Taliban leaders two weeks ago in southern Uruzgan province and insisted it fired only on armed men.

But Karzai said an Interior Ministry investigation into the incident, some 250 miles south-west of the capital, Kabul, established that 10 civilians had died.

“There are casualties unfortunately, according to the report that I have received, of civilians, of children and men and women,” Karzai told reporters at his palace.

His spokesman, Jawed Ludin, said the investigation had focused only on whether civilians had died, and had no information on whether militants also were killed.

At the time of the raid, local officials had maintained that 11 civilians were killed: four men, four children and three women.

There was no immediate comment today from the US military.