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U.S. air strikes earlier this month killed 140 villagers, an Afghan government investigation concluded on Saturday, putting Kabul starkly at odds with the U.S. military's account.
The official death toll, announced by the Afghan Defense Ministry, makes the bombing the deadliest incident for civilians since U.S. forces began fighting the Taliban in 2001, and is likely to worsen anger over the presence of foreign troops.
A copy of the government's list of the names, ages and father's names of each of the 140 dead was obtained by Reuters earlier this week. It shows that 93 of those killed were children -- the youngest eight days old -- and only 22 were adult males.
"No other news makes me as sad and sorrowful as incidents of civilian casualties during military operations," the Defense Ministry statement quoted President Hamid Karzai as saying.
The Afghan government paid the relatives of victims the equivalent of about $2,000 for those who were killed and $1,000 for 25 others wounded, it said.
U.S. aircraft bombed villages in the Bala Boluk district of Afghanistan's western Farah province on May 3 after U.S. Marines and Afghan security forces became involved in a firefight with Taliban fighters. According to villagers, families were cowering in houses when the U.S. aircraft bombed them.
The incident has prompted anger across Afghanistan toward Western troops, and caused Karzai to demand a halt to all air strikes, a plea that Washington has rebuffed.
PHOTO CAPTION
Eight-year old Afghan girl Nazo, who was injured during a US air strike in Garni village in western Farah province, looks on from her hospital bed in Herat City.
Agencies
