Nato's military commander General James Jones apologised Saturday for civilian casualties in anti-Taliban strikes as an investigation continued into claims that scores died this week.
Jones blamed insurgents for the killing of civilians in southern Kandahar province, saying they had been using ordinary people as cover to avoid International Security Assistance Force fire.
Typically, "insurgents do not play by the same rules that we would like to play by," Jones told reporters at the end of a three-day trip to Afghanistan during which he met President Hamid Karzai and military leaders.
"In this particular case, sadly there appears to have been loss of life and innocent people who were wounded in a legitimate mission where insurgents were using the cover of the civilian population to make it very difficult for us to get at them."