THE OBAMA administration has expressed “deep regret” over the deaths of dozens of people, including women and children, in a US airstrike in Afghanistan. The killings threatened to overshadow yesterday’s White House talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari amid mounting US concern over the Taliban’s insurgency in both countries.
Afghan officials and foreign relief workers say that up to 100 civilians were killed in western Afghanistan on Monday as they sought to flee a US bombing strike.
The US military has not confirmed that it caused the deaths, but secretary of state Hillary Clinton expressed her sympathy and regret to Mr Karzai.
“We deeply regret it. We don’t know all of the circumstances or causes. And there will be a joint investigation, by your government and ours. But any loss of life, any loss of innocent life, is particularly painful,” she said.
“And I want to convey to the people of both Afghanistan and Pakistan that . . . we will work very hard, with your governments and with your leaders, to avoid the loss of innocent civilian life. And we deeply, deeply regret that loss.”
The US military has sent a brigadier general to investigate the airstrike, which Mr Karzai planned to raise with President Barack Obama later yesterday.
Mrs Clinton held separate talks with Mr Karzai and Mr Zardari before a trilateral meeting of officials from the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mr Obama was due to meet both leaders later yesterday to discuss security, economic and agricultural issues.
The US administration has expressed impatience with both the Afghan and Pakistani leaders in recent weeks as the Taliban has made gains in both countries. Washington opposed the Pakistani government’s agreement with the Taliban that allowed the Islamist group to hold sway in the northwestern Swat valley.
Mrs Clinton said yesterday that she was pleased with the action taken by Pakistani security forces to confront the Taliban in recent days, suggesting that the government in Islamabad realised that the Swat valley deal had been a mistake.
“I’m actually quite impressed by the actions the Pakistani government is now taking,” she said. “I think that action was called for and action has been forthcoming.”
Mr Zardari, whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated by Islamist militants, said his government would deal with the challenge posed by the Taliban, noting that the US had made slow progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan. “My democracy will deliver. We are up to the challenge,” he said. “Just as the United States is making progress after seven years of engagement in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we too will make progress.”
Mr Obama was expected to press Mr Zardari to do more to confront the Taliban, and to ask Mr Karzai for a renewed commitment to work with US and Pakistani military forces.
Mrs Clinton said that the trilateral talks, which will continue today, were showing promising signs and pledged US aid to train farmers in both countries, boost economic development and improve intelligence and security capabilities.
Urging Congress to approve a tripling of non-military aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the secretary of state said that al-Qaeda and the Taliban could not be defeated by military means alone.
“We have made this common cause because we face a common threat,” she said. “And we have a common task and a common challenge.
“We know that each of your countries is struggling with the extremists who would destabilise and undermine democracy.”