The US military opened an investigation into the operation overnight Monday into Tuesday in the remote western province of Farah, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his government to probe reports of high civilian casualties.

"During the aerial bombardment and ground operations, more than 100 people have died," western Afghanistan police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP, basing his information on reports from police, the Red Cross and locals.

"Twenty-five to 30 of them are Taliban, including from Chechnya and Pakistan, and the rest are civilians including children, women and elderly people," he said.

Deputy Farah provincial governor Mohammad Younus Rasouli said he had seen the bodies of 20 children brought by villagers to the provincial capital, also called Farah.

The top US military commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, told reporters later that at least 25 Taliban insurgents were killed in the strikes but the number of civilian dead was not confirmed.

They were launched after Afghan authorities asked for help in a clash with Taliban militants who had beheaded three civilians, said McKiernan, who commands the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The clashes and air strikes were in volatile Bala Buluk district, about 600 kilometres (350 miles) southwest of Kabul.

Provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Watandar also said 100 people had been killed in two villages in the district, at least 30 of them civilians.

"Now we are trying to find out what number of them are combatants and what number are civilians," he said.

Taliban were in control of the area, making it difficult to verify numbers, Farah province governor Rohul Amin said.

Insurgents who attacked the security forces took shelter in civilian homes, accounting for at least some of the civilian casualties, he said.

"Dozens of people were killed, including women and children," International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Barry told AFP.

One of the dead was a community volunteer for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, who was killed along with 13 members of his family, she said.

Karzai said in a statement he would raise the issue with US President Barack Obama when he meets him in Washington later Wednesday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said meanwhile that the United States deeply regretted the loss of civilian life.

"We don't know all of the circumstances or causes. And there will be a joint investigation by your government and ours," she told a meeting with Karzai.

In Kabul UN envoy Kai Eide said he was "seriously concerned" and was in close contact with McKiernan as investigations proceeded.

The killing of ordinary Afghans in the fight against extremists is a main source of tension between Karzai and the United States, on which fragile Afghanistan depends for security and aid.

Tensions peaked in August last year when Afghan and UN investigation teams found that more than 90 civilians, including 50-60 children, were killed in US-led coalition air strikes in western Afghanistan.

The US military, which initially said five to seven civilians and 30-35 Taliban were killed, reopened an investigation after an outcry, finding 33 civilians and 22 militants died.

There are roughly 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, more than half of them from the United States, which has pledged an extra 21,000 to tackle the extremist threat.

Last year was the deadliest for civilians caught up in the conflict, according to UN figures that say nearly 2,200 were killed, about 55 percent in insurgent attacks and nearly 40 percent by pro-government force action.

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