UN accuses US-led troops in deaths of Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations said Tuesday it has found "convincing evidence" that U.S. coalition troops and Afghan forces killed some 90 civilians, including 60 children, in airstrikes in western Afghanistan.

The U.N. said it based its findings solely on the testimony of villagers and meetings with Afghan officials, and did not provide photos or evidence that its investigators saw any graves.

President Hamid Karzai's government, in a harshly worded statement, ordered its ministries of foreign affairs and defense to regulate the presence of foreign troops and try to negotiate an end to "airstrikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians."

The U.S. coalition has said it killed 25 militants and five civilians in an operation in Shindand district of Herat province on Friday.

Karzai's statement appears to be aimed at both international forces operating in Afghanistan: the U.S.-led coalition, which conducts special forces counterterrorism operations and trains the fledgling Afghan army and police, and the U.N.-mandated NATO-led force tasked to provide security for the war-ravaged nation.

The accusation from the world body will likely fuel tensions among the U.S. coalition, the U.N. and the Afghan government.

Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said Tuesday that the decision was made after Afghan officials "lost patience" with foreign forces, and the killings and detentions of civilians during raids in remote villages.

"We do not want international forces to leave Afghanistan until the time our security institutions are able to defend Afghanistan independently," Hamidzada told reporters Tuesday.

But the presence of those forces has to be based "within the framework of Afghan law with respect to international law," Hamidzada said.

Hamidzada says circumstances have changed. "Afghanistan of 2001 is different from Afghanistan today," he said. He said the government has not discussed any timetable for the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

Capt. Mike Windsor, a spokesman for the NATO-led force, said the force had seen media reports about the government's decision but had not received "any official notification so far."

He pointed out that NATO's "mission is based on a U.N. mandate and carried upon the invitation of the Afghan government."