The US military said Monday that an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan last week which allegedly killed dozens of civilians was a "legitimate" assault on Taliban forces. "We continue at this point to believe that this was a legitimate strike against the Taliban," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"Unfortunately there were some civilian casualties, although that figure is in dispute, I would say. But this is why it is being investigated," he said. Whitman declined to comment, though, on the demand Monday by the Afghan cabinet to renegotiate agreements regulating the presence of international troops following the strikes.
An Afghan government commission said Sunday that more than 90 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat on Friday. It is one of the deadliest civilian tolls in international military action since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the hard-line Taliban regime.