Kabul - A United Nations investigative team has found that 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in a US-led coalition air raid in western Afghanistan last week, the top UN envoy in the country said Tuesday. The team "found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and others that some 90 civilians were killed," Kai Eide, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement.
Eide said the victims were 60 children, 15 women and 15 men while 15 other villagers were wounded in Friday's airstrike in Azizabad village in the Shindand district of Herat province.
The death toll was the highest for civilians in a single raid in Afghanistan since the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001.
"The destruction from the aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some seven to eight houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others," Eide said, adding, "Local residents were able to confirm the number of casualties, including names, age and gender of the victims."
A commission appointed by the Afghan government and led by a cabinet minister also said that more than 90 civilians were killed in the attack when it concluded its investigation Sunday.
The US military said it would investigate the allegations after initially claiming its forces had targeted a rebel hideout and killed 30 Taliban, including a rebel commander.
The Afghan cabinet reacted Monday by issuing a resolution demanding a new review of the foreign role in the country.
"Authority and responsibilities of the international forces in the country must be regulated through a status-of-force agreement consistent with both international and Afghan law," the presidential palace said in a statement.
"Airstrikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians must be stopped," it said.
President Hamid Karzai met members of Afghanistan's National Assembly to discuss the security situation, a separate statement said.
The legislators urged the president to regulate foreign troops in the country, it said, adding that the parliamentarians also supported Monday's resolution by the cabinet ministers.
Civilian casualties during international operations against the Taliban are of grave concern to the Western-backed Afghan government as it struggles to win legitimacy among the population.
On Sunday, Karzai sacked two Afghan National Army commanders for "dereliction of duty" and "concealing the truth" in the Shindand incident.
More than 70,000 international troops from around 40 countries are deployed in Afghanistan. The forces operate under NATO and US commands.
Karzai's attempts to bring the international forces under the control of his administration have failed.
Of the more than 3,000 people killed so far this year, more than 1,000 have been civilians, according to figures provided by Afghan and international military sources.
