US policy in Afghanistan faulted

A joint Afghan-US probe is ongoing and evidence will show that the Taliban, not a US airstrike, was to blame, the top US Marine officer said yesterday in Washington.

"We believe that there were families who were killed by the Taliban with grenades and rifle fire that were then paraded about and shown as casualties from the airstrike," said Marine Corps Commandant General James Conway.

It is unclear exactly how many people died in the fighting in Bala Baluk district. The Afghan government has paid compensation to families for 140 dead. The US military has said that figure is exaggerated, but has not given its own estimate.

If the Afghan toll is correct, it would be the largest case of civilian deaths since the 2001 US-led invasion to oust the Taliban.

Villagers told the watchdog group that the fighting broke out after Taliban arrived demanding a share of their poppy income, but it was during the bombings that most of the civilians were killed.

It was not clear if the poppy dispute sparked the fighting, Human Rights Watch researcher Rachel Reid said.

The group reiterated its condemnation for Taliban practices of using civilians as human shields and deploying its fighters in populated areas, but said its interviews did not suggest that residents were used as human shields in Bala Baluk.

Villagers interviewed did not say that the Taliban threw grenades at civilians, which the US has said may have caused some of the deaths.