U.S. defends attack

KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S. military insisted Monday that airstrikes on a southern village, which killed at least 16 Afghan civilians, were a legitimate attack on Taliban militants.

In addition to the civilian deaths, as many as 80 members of Taliban militia were killed by the bombardment in the early morning darkness Monday in the village of Azizi, in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, a U.S. military statement said. Only 20 of the Taliban deaths were confirmed, the statement added, and five Taliban members were detained for interrogation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has complained for more than two years that U.S. airstrikes which injure or kill civilians undermine his efforts at reconciliation. And after four years of war in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the insurgency is spreading.

After last fall’s largely peaceful parliamentary elections, Karzai said it was time for a change of tactics, and called on U.S.-led forces to “concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supplies to them, on the money coming to them.”

In response to questions about Monday’s bombing, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said, “Coalition forces are aware of media reports of civilian casualties and are continuing to review assessments from ground elements in the region.”

For the third time in a week, U.S.-led forces were pursuing Taliban fighters “suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities,” the spokesman said.

Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid said the airstrikes killed16 civilians, including women and children, and injured 15 other noncombatants. But he blamed the Taliban.