Kabul, Afghanistan - An airstrike by United States-led forces killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 others at a wedding party in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Wednesday. The casualties included women and children, the officials said.

Afghan officials said a US-led aistrike killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 others at a wedding party in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan Wednesday. The casualties included women and children. (Photo: Agence France-Presse)

    The reports of the strike, in a region that has become a renewed front line in the battle against the Taliban Islamist insurgents who once ruled the country, came within hours of the election of Barack Obama as the next American president. It showed the raw tensions between the United States and Afghanistan over the toll suffered by civilians in the war.

    It follows an assault in August in western Afghanistan that was initially disputed by the United States, in which an American gunship killed 30 civilians. On Wednesday, at a news conference called to congratulate Mr. Obama, President Hamid Karzai said his first request to Mr. Obama would be "to end the civilian casualties."

    The United States military and Afghan authorities were investigating the reports about the latest attack, the American military said in a statement, but it gave no confirmation of the strikes or any death toll.

    "The coalition and Afghan authorities are investigating reports of non-combatant casualties in the village of Wech Baghtu," said Cmdr. Jeff Bender, deputy public affairs officer of United States forces in Afghanistan, in a statement.

    "If innocent people were killed in this operation, we apologize and express our condolences to the families and the people of Afghanistan," he said, adding that the facts were "unclear at this point."

    Zalmay Ayoby, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, said the strike took place on Monday afternoon when Taliban and American-led forces engaged in a firefight near Wech Baghtu village in Sha Wali Kot district. An airstrike was later called in and hit a compound where a wedding party was being held, he said.

    "Unfortunately we should say that an airstrike on a wedding party had killed and injured a huge number of people in Sha Wali Kot," he said.

    Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of the president and leader of the provincial council in Kandahar, said there were civilian casualties but he said it was unclear how many people had died.

    He said he had spoken with some people who had been wounded in the attack and had been admitted to Kandahar's main hospital. They told him that as many as 32 civilians were admitted, including women and children from the wedding party, he said.

    Dr. Qudratullah Hakimi, a doctor at the Merwais Hospital in Kandahar, who was reached by telephone, said the hospital had admitted 22 women and six children after the attack. The children were aged between one and 11 years old, he said. He said the bride from the wedding party was among those injured and had undergone an operation but was stable.

    "Five out of 28 are in serious conditions and the others are stable," he said. His patients reported that up to 90 people were killed or wounded in the attack, and that some were buried under the rubble, although this could not be confirmed.

    Later, President Karzai condemned the attack in a statement and said that around 40 people had been killed and another 28 wounded.

    Afghan anger over airstrikes and civilian casualties has been rising amid tensions with the United States.

    In one of the most controversial recent cases, an American AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected Taliban compound on Aug. 22, prompting assertions by villagers that more than 90 civilians were killed, a majority of them women and children.

    In that attack, the American military initially said five to seven civilians were killed, but a subsequent report by a military investigator put the civilian death toll at more than 30.

    At his news conference Wednesday, President Karzai referred to civilian casualties in the attack on Sha Wali Kot. "The fight against terrorism cannot be won by bombardment of our villages," Mr. Karzai said. "My first demand from the new president of the United States when he takes his office will be to end the civilian casualties and take the fight to where the nests and sanctuaries are," he said.

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    Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, Afghanistan and Mark McDonald from New York. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New Yor

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