ISAF 'sorry' about the deaths of Afghan civilians

Has apologized to foreign forces in Afghanistan killed nine Afghan civilians after criticizing President Hamid Karzai's air raid, which officials said that 14 were killed, including children.

He said NATO officials said in a statement and carried out the attack in southern Helmand province on Saturday after the rebels who had been killed earlier in the U.S. Marines patrolling the compound and hid in the continuous shooting.

The complex was affected
by the major air raid of civilians.

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Local officials said five girls and seven boys and two women were among those killed at the hands of international forces, but Karzai said later killed 10 children and two women, two men.

And issued a Major-General John Toolan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander of the southwest region of Afghanistan, an official apology on Monday morning on behalf of the coalition commanders the top.

"I want to extend my sincere apologies for the nine civilians killed during the incident, which occurred in an area Nawzad, Helmand province," he said in a statement Toolan.

Toolan said the air strike was launched after an insurgent attack on coalition patrol killed a soldier in the Marines.

Toolan said five militants had occupied the complex and continued attacks on coalition forces, who called in an airstrike "to neutralize the threat."

"Unfortunately, the compound of the rebel territories meaningful discovered at a later time to the home of innocent civilians," said Toolan.

He stressed that the alliance was "top priority" to avoid civilian casualties, adding that a full investigation is under way.

"While I know that there is no price on human life, and we will work to ensure that we make with the families and adjusted in accordance with Afghan culture," he said Toolan.

The apology came after Karzai's office issued what it said was his "last warning" to the United States and NATO forces led by the United States on civilian casualties after the incident last Saturday, which he described as "a big mistake."

In a statement on Sunday, Karzai called for an end to attacks by coalition forces that led to the deaths of civilians, describing the operations "inhumane."

"We have informed the Americans and NATO forces several times that the processes of coordination is united, will lead to the killing of innocent civilians, and that such operations are not humane, but still no one has heard," Karzai said, adding that his conviction would be a "last warning to NATO forces NATO and U.S. forces and American officials. "

In response, said White House spokesman told reporters that Jay Carney, "We share and take it very seriously," Karzai's concerns.

Civilian deaths in international military operations that are the subject of a highly sensitive in Afghanistan, which angered many public demonstrations and often vocal condemnations of Karzai.

And showed the footage and images from Helmand province, turbaned men carrying the bodies of children in the wake of Saturday's incident.

Aslam, said local leaders in the province of Nawzad, told AFP that he "lost 12 relatives, while 10 others were injured, including children" in the air strike.

He said that some shots were fired on the helicopters that flew the international force in the region, adding that the helicopters returned after 10 to 20 minutes, and fired missiles, which led to the killing of "innocent civilians".

The United Nations says the death toll of Afghan civilians in the war increased 15 per cent to a record high of 2777 last year.

More than three-quarters of those killed in violence attributed to the rebels.