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Most of 140 Afghan dead in US strikes under 18: official
Herat, Afghanistan (AFP) May 11, 2009 An Afghan government investigation has found that 95 out of 140 civilians killed in US air strikes a week ago were under 18 years old, an official said Wednesday. The government has paid compensation to the families of the 140 people said to have been killed in the western Afghan province of Farah as well as 25 wounded, provincial government spokesman Farid Ahmad Ayobi told AFP. The investigation team, appointed by President Hamid Karzai, announced its toll of 140 to provincial authorities on Monday but did not say how many were adults and children. Other officials had claimed more than 90 were under 18. "The presidential delegation announced that 140 civilians were killed, 25 civilians were wounded and 15 houses were destroyed," Ayobi told AFP. "There were 95 children below the age of 18 who were killed and 65 of the total killed were female," he said. Members of the team could not be reached immediately for confirmation. The toll makes it the deadliest incident for civilians in air strikes since the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime paving the way for the deployment of thousands of foreign troops to fight insurgents. But after an investigation with Afghan security forces, the US military has accepted only that "a number" of civilians were killed. It was unclear how. US regional commander General David Petraeus has appointed a new US military investigation to start immediately, spokesman Colonel Greg Julian told AFP. The US military, which often pays compensation, was still sorting through the details of the case, Julian said. Ayobi said the government delegation paid the equivalent of 2,000 dollars to the families of each person killed in the Farah incident and 1,000 dollars to each of the wounded. It was to present its findings to Karzai, who was expected to announce the figures officially. An Afghan non-governmental organisation claimed separately that its own investigation, based on interviews with locals, found that 117 civilians were killed in the strikes, including 26 women and 61 children. The Taliban used civilians as shields and "caused the killing of a large number of non-combatants," the Afghanistan Rights Monitor said. US forces, however, also "used excessive military force and responded to the Taliban's offensive in a disproportionate manner," it said. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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