About 10 Afghan villagers were killed in a US air raid two weeks ago in Uruzgan province in the centre of the country, Afghanistan's US-backed president said on Saturday.
US military officials were not immediately available for comment but two days after the January 18 raid, a US spokesman had rejected reports from provincial authorities that 11 civilians, including four children, had been killed.
"There are casualties, unfortunately, men and women," Hamid Karzai told reporters on the steps of his presidential palace during weekly briefing.
"About 10 people, according to the reports," he said, referring to results of a government investigation of the attack in the province's Charcheno district.
Afghan provincial officials said three women were also among the dead.
The US military spokesman said five armed men had been killed in the raid after they left a compound where mid-level leaders of former Taleban regime had gathered.
Mountainous Uruzgan was a bastion of the Taleban before overthrow by the US-led offensive.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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