(23 Aug 2008)
1. Various of local government officials praying with relatives of victims
2. Top shot of destroyed houses
3. Various of people walking through destroyed houses
4. Various of relatives of victims crying
5. Wide of graveyard of victims
6. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Ekramuddin Yawar, Herat Province Police Official:
"The number of dead people killed in the coalition operation has reached 76."
7. Wide of demonstration against US and Afghan government
8. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Mohammad Jamil, Demonstrator, Vox Pop:
"Afghan National Army forces and Americans attacked us during the night and bombarded us, killing 76 of our relatives."
9. Wide of demonstration
STORYLINE:
Scores of Afghan civilians who had gathered in a small village for the memorial ceremony of a militia commander were allegedly killed when US and Afghan soldiers launched an attack early on Friday.
The claim was made by Afghan officials and villagers on Saturday.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the operation in Azizabad in the western province of Herat.
Karzai said most of the dead were civilians.
The US military said it believed five civilians were among those killed and that it would investigate the Afghan claims.
An Afghan human rights group that visited the site of the operation said on Saturday that at least 78 people were killed.
The Ministry of Interior has said 76 civilians died, including 50 children under the age of 15, though the Ministry of Defence said 25 militants and five civilians were killed.
Herat Province police official Ekramuddin Yawar also said 76 people had been killed in the attack.
Villagers held an anti-US and Afghan government demonstration on Saturday.
"Afghan National Army forces and Americans attacked us during the night and bombarded us, killing 76 of our relatives," one of the demonstrators, Mohammad Jamil, told AP Television.
An Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission researcher visited Azizabad and found that 15 houses had been destroyed and others were damaged, said the group's commissioner, and added that the information was preliminary and the group would publish a final report.
An Associated Press photographer who visited Azizabad on Saturday said he saw at least 20 graves, including some graves with multiple bodies in them.
Originally the US military said the battle killed 30 militants, including a wanted Taliban commander, but a US coalition spokeswoman said Saturday that five civilians - two women and three children connected to the militants - were among the dead.
The competing claims by the US military and the two Afghan ministries were impossible to verify because of the remote and dangerous location of the battle site.
Still, the US has killed dozens of civilians in past strikes even though it first denied any civilians had been hit.
In early July, US bombs killed 47 civilians walking to a wedding party in Nuristan province, according to the findings of a government commission.
The US military originally said it believed only combatants had been killed, and suggested that reports of civilians deaths were
based on propaganda from militants.
Civilian deaths creates massive amounts of pressure on Karzai, and on Saturday the president said his government would soon announce measures to prevent civilian casualties, but provided no details.
The early Friday operation was led by Afghan National Army commandos, with support from US-led coalition forces, a US military spokesperson said.
More than 3,500 people - mostly militants - have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to figures from Western and Afghan officials.
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