International News

Air strike killed 37 Afghan
civilians: investigation
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Kabul

A joint Afghan and US military investigation has concluded an air strike last week killed 37 civilians and wounded 35 more after Taliban militants launched an ambush from the cover of a village, the US military said.
The president, Hamid Karzai, said after the incident the issue of civilian casualties was the biggest source of tension with his main backer, the United States, and called on president-elect Barack Obama to make it his priority to stop innocents being killed.
A string of mistaken US air strikes this year have killed at least 150 Afghan civilians, undermining public support for the continued presence of more than 60,000 NATO-led and US coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Villagers told investigators a large number of insurgents arrived at the village of Wech Baghtu, in southern Afghanistan, and used homes to fire on a joint patrol of US-coalition and Afghan forces, the US military said in a statement.