Civilian Casualties

Afghanistan's government on Monday demanded a review of international troops within its borders after an airstrike which Afghanistan believes killed about 90 civilians -- most of them children. The Council of Ministers called on the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs to demand that international forces halt all airstrikes on civilian targets, as well as house searches that are not coordinated with Afghan authorities, and the illegal detention of civilians. The demands come after a U.S. airstrike Friday which the Afghan government says killed about 90 Afghan civilians and which the U.S.-led coalition says killed insurgents.

NATO's International Security Assistance Forces said Wednesday it has received "credible reports" of civilian casualties -- including women and children -- from at least one of three fights Tuesday involving government, ISAF and Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. "ISAF can confirm that four injured civilians who approached an ISAF patrol have been evacuated and are now being treated in the ISAF military hospital at Kandahar airfield," the ISAF public affairs office said in a written statement.

Afghans from the eastern province of Nagrahar tell CNN that the Taliban exaggerated reports of civilian casualties in a bombed-out village they displayed to a group of international journalists Sunday. CNN's Nic Robertson was among the journalists who traveled to Koram, about 60 miles west of the Nagrahar's provincial capital, Jalalabad. He reported seeing villagers sift through rubble in search of loved ones and visiting 17 people in the hospital who said they were injured in the bomb blast.

The NATO command in Afghanistan said Thursday it is investigating a rocket strike in Helmand province, and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday night near Babaji village in Lashkar Gah, when a rocket was fired against a group of nine people preparing a roadside bomb, according to the International Security Assistance Force. ISAF said it had become aware of civilian casualty allegations from media reports. Reports also said there was an airstrike and rocket attacks in Lashkar Gah, ISAF said.

Just days after the governor of an northeastern Afghanistan province claimed dozens of civilians were killed in a NATO-led mission targeting insurgents, new allegations of civilian casualties surfaced in a nearby province Thursday. NATO's International Security Assistance Force is investigating the claims stemming from an operation Thursday morning in the Alah Say district of Kapisa province, the military said in a statement. Armed insurgents were the target, ISAF said. "We take civilian casualty allegations very seriously; we'll investigate this incident as quickly as possible," said U.S. Army Col. Patrick Hynes, director of ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center.

The NATO-led command in Afghanistan is investigating a raid that led to the deaths of six Afghans and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday in the eastern province of Khost in an operation launched by Afghan and coalition forces, and the probe highlights the coalition's emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths. The force approached a building and "was engaged with small arms fire. " "Coalition forces take every allegation of civilian casualties seriously and will conduct a complete assessment of the engagement," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement on Thursday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Sunday with the top U.S. military commander in Iraq to voice his outrage over the reported deaths of Iraqi civilians during a Sunday morning military raid in Baghdad's Sadr City, a government spokesman told CNN. Al-Maliki expressed his concerns to Gen. David Petraeus over Iraqi reports that 10 to 15 civilians were killed in the raid, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN's "Late Edition. " The U.S. military said its ground forces are "unaware" of civilian deaths in the early morning raid that it said left 49 "criminals" dead.

Up to 50 people were killed Tuesday in U.S. airstrikes on buildings in an Afghan area frequented by insurgents, a senior U.S. military official told CNN on Friday. However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the death toll was higher, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that more than 100 people were killed. "I got different word from the government this morning that there were more than 100 casualties, nearly 125 to 130 civilians lost ... and that it was done by the bombings," he said.

Civilian casualties resulting from Afghanistan's war have spiked, jumping some 24 percent above figures from last year, the United Nations reported Friday. The Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan announced it recorded 1,013 civilian deaths in Afghanistan during the first six months of this year. That compares to 818 Afghan civilians who were killed during the same period in 2008, while 684 civilians were killed during the first half of 2007.

At least 20 people were killed and more than 60 injured in Afghanistan when a U.S. plane dropped a bomb on a wedding party as celebrants fired into the air, an Afghan defense spokesman said Monday. Dr. Gulbudin, the Afghan Defense Ministry's chief of staff, said the information came from Afghan defense officials in the central province of Uruzgan. He said the death toll was between 20 and 30. The Pentagon did not confirm the number of casualties but did say a U.S. aircraft providing ground support to Special Forces dropped an "errant bomb" after coming under anti-aircraft fire.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai expressed dismay Monday over four airstrikes in recent days by international forces in which dozens of civilian casualties have been reported. "That's unacceptable to the Afghan government," said the spokesman, Aimal Faizi. He said that Karzai had spoken with local officials and the families of the victims and then summoned International Security Assistance Force commander, Gen. John Allen, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker to the palace for an explanation.

As violence raged in Syria, U.S. officials made clear Tuesday that the United States has lost patience with President Bashar al-Assad. "Your days are numbered," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in comments directed at the Syrian leader. "It is time and past time for you to transfer power responsibly and peacefully. " Her remarks came as two senior administration officials told CNN that, while the U.S. focus remains on exerting diplomatic and economic pressure on Damascus, the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary internal review of U.S. military capabilities in order to prepare options in the event that President Obama calls for them.

Four children and a woman were killed by a roadside bomb in restive central Afghanistan on Monday afternoon, according to police. Their minibus hit the device, which also injured two children, a woman and three men at 3:30 p.m., according to Fareed Oyed, spokesman for Uruzgun police. It was unclear if the device was deliberately detonated, or intended for other targets, he said. Oyed said the attack was "done by enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan. " Civilian casualties from roadside bombs have risen recently, causing NATO officials to highlight them as a sign of the insurgency's disregard for ordinary Afghans.

Sri Lanka's response to a scathing United Nations report alleging war crimes and human rights violations has reached the president's desk. President Mahinda Rajapaksa received the 400-page document on Sunday night. The response, compiled by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, will be presented to Parliament, though Rajapaksa did not say when. At their president's urging, Sri Lankans took to the streets in May to rail against the U.N. report, which cites "credible allegations" that crimes were committed by both sides during the final stages of the country's civil war. A three-member U.N. panel recommended that Sri Lanka immediately conduct an investigation into the alleged violations of international law. Human rights groups have already alleged both government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels violated humanitarian laws and that thousands of civilians were killed during the war, which ended in May 2009 after the government declared victory.

Four people were shot dead Friday in an anti-NATO demonstration in southern Afghanistan during an exchange of gunfire that took place amid a protest over civilian casualties, police said. The violence erupted in Qalat -- the provincial capital of the country's southern border province of Zabul -- and left three civilians and one police officer dead, according to the provincial police chief, Abdul Elham. Five others were injured in the firefight, he said. Elham did not offer details regarding the previous civilian casualties, which allegedly occurred the night before, and it's not clear how Friday's protest turned deadly.

The NATO-led command in Afghanistan is investigating a raid that led to the deaths of six Afghans and claims of civilian casualties. The incident occurred Wednesday in the eastern province of Khost in an operation launched by Afghan and coalition forces, and the probe highlights the coalition's emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths. The force approached a building and "was engaged with small arms fire. " "Coalition forces take every allegation of civilian casualties seriously and will conduct a complete assessment of the engagement," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement on Thursday.

Eight children and three women died in eastern Afghanistan when NATO-led forces bombarded houses, a provincial official told CNN Thursday. The incident took place Wednesday in Khost province's Domandera district, according to Khost upper house member and foreign relations chief Arifullah Pashton. There was no immediate reaction from NATO's International Security Assistance Force about civilian casualties in Khost. But ISAF said it was investigating allegations of civilian casualties in an airstrike targeting an insurgent in Ghazni province, in the southeast.

NATO airstrikes hit a bakery and a restaurant in the Libyan city of al-Brega Saturday, killing 15 civilians, a Libyan government official told CNN, though the alliance countered that claim. NATO said it had struck key command-and-control centers. The alliance said there was "no indication of civilian casualties in connection with these strikes. " Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces have occupied buildings in an abandoned area of al-Brega from where they are launching attacks on civilians, a NATO statement said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to carry out an independent fact-gathering mission on Monday's NATO attack in the city of Surman, which resulted in civilian casualties. "The Security Council should hold an urgent meeting to discuss the matter and stop this barbaric attack," he said in a nationally televised address. In the attack, five houses were hit in Surman, which is west of Tripoli, and 15 people died, including three children, according to a government spokesman.

NATO said Monday that a residential building west of Tripoli was targeted early Monday in an airstrike that the Libyan government alleges killed 15 people, including three children. NATO said in a statement that, while it could not confirm the casualties, "we would regret any loss of civilian life and we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. " The organization added that the strike was justified. "This was a precision strike on a legitimate military target -- a command-and-control node which was directly involved in coordinating systematic attacks on the Libyan people," NATO said in the statement.