President Hamid Karzai appeals to President-elect Barack Obama to end civilian casualties. 
 
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Istanbul, Turkey -- The U.S. military said Wednesday that it was investigating a report that an American airstrike hit a wedding party in southern Afghanistan, killing dozens of civilians and prompting new pleas from President Hamid Karzai that foreign forces try harder to avoid killing and injuring noncombatants.

"We cannot win the fight against terrorism with airstrikes," Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace in Kabul, speaking hours after Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election. "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States -- to put an end to civilian casualties."

 The airstrike report came from Kandahar province. The U.S.-led coalition said in a statement today that coalition troops had been battling insurgents around the time of the reported civilian deaths, and that "several" militants were killed.

Separately, American military officials suggested that insurgents had forced civilians to remain in the area while they attacked coalition troops.

Western news agencies quoted residents of the remote village of Wech Bagtu as saying that an airstrike Monday destroyed a residential compound where a wedding was being celebrated, killing about three dozen people, most of them women and children. The bride was said to be one of those injured.

 The report could not be immediately confirmed...

Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan6-2008nov06,0,2613630.story

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