Red Cross confirms civilian deaths

KABUL, Afghanistan – As the Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that dozens of civilians had been killed in U.S. airstrikes in an isolated district in western Afghanistan, provincial authorities suggested the toll could reach 100. Weeping villagers dug mass graves.

President Hamid Karzai, meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama, called the deaths “unacceptable” in a statement issued by the presidential palace in Kabul.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States “deeply regrets” the loss of life, but the American military said it has not yet determined who was responsible.

Some new details emerged Wednesday about the fatalities in the district of Bala Baluk in the western province of Farah. The deaths took place during clashes Monday between coalition troops and Taliban fighters, and many insurgents were said to remain in the area.

The U.S. military swiftly dispatched a team to the scene. A brigadier general was taking part in the probe, said Army Col. Gregory Julian, the chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross also traveled to the area, and a spokeswoman in Kabul, Jessica Barry, said Wednesday there was little doubt that dozens of those killed in two locations were noncombatants. Many of the bodies seen being pulled from the rubble were those of women, children and elderly men, she said.