US-led airstrikes killed dozens of Afghans, including women and children, the Red Cross said on Wednesday, appearing to confirm an incident that could overshadow a meeting between US and Afghan leaders.
Rohul Amin, governor of Western Farah province where the bombing took place during a battle on Monday and Tuesday, said he feared 100 civilians had been killed.
Provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Watandar said the death toll could be even higher. If confirmed, those even higher figures could make the incident the single deadliest for Afghan civilians since the campaign to topple the Taliban in 2001.
President Hamid Karzai, due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington later on Wednesday for the first time since Obama took office, sent a joint US-Afghan delegation to investigate the incident, his office said.
Among those killed was a first aid volunteer for Afghanistan’s Red Crescent, who died along with 13 members of his family. She said the team was not able to say whether there were any fighters among the dead.
Civilian casualties are a source of great strain between Washington and Kabul at a time of rising violence by Islamist Taliban insurgents and with US troop numbers due to be more than doubled by the end of the year.
