US: The US continued to deny responsibility for the deaths of civilians during Monday's airstrikes in Afghanistan but yesterday adopted a more conciliatory tone in response to growing concerns about the episode.
There remains a wide discrepancy between the numbers of casualties reported in Afghanistan and those acknowledged by the US.
The Pentagon has only confirmed that four children were wounded in the attack on a wedding party in a village in the central Afghan province of Uruzgan.
They were being treated yesterday by medical staff at the US base in Kandahar.
With many US newspapers carrying pictures of the wounded children, the White House and Pentagon have stepped up their exercise in damage limitation.
While the initial official response questioned whether there had been any civilian casualties and suggested that the airstrikes had been in reaction to enemy fire, the latest statements have been ones of condolence and a desire to investigate. "The President is concerned about reports from Afghanistan that innocent lives were lost in the conduct of the joint US-Afghan military operations in Uruzgan province," the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said.
"On behalf of the American people, the President extends his deep condolences for the loss of innocent life no matter what the cause is determined to be."
The Pentagon portrayed the area as a Taliban stronghold that for several weeks had been the scene of sporadic fire fights and anti-aircraft fire on US aircraft.
Lieut Gen Gregory Newbold, operations director of Joint Staff, said coalition forces this week uncovered 15 tonnes of munitions and anti-aircraft weapons in a cache 16 kilometres from where the wedding took place.
The Pentagon said yesterday that an inquiry was being conducted into what prompted the airstrikes.
The victims of the raid were personally known to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, CNN reported yesterday. The network quoted journalists travelling with the joint fact-finding mission as saying that the groom's father was a friend of President Karzai. Mr Karzai has strongly warned the US against another fatal mistake.
Meanwhile, four foreign al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a gun-battle with Pakistani security forces in the north-western city of Kohat yesterday, officials said. Three security personnel were also killed in the encounter. - (Guardian Service/AFP)