KABUL - US President George W. Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan said Thursday he regretted the loss of civilian lives during US-led military operations in Afghanistan.
"Whenever there are military operations and innocent civilians lose their lives we very much regret that," Zalmay Khalilzad, who is also US ambassador to Kabul, told AFP on Thursday.
The outgoing ambassador, who is due to take up the same post in Iraq, told AFP that US forces were trying their best to avoid civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
"But at times they do occur and when they do we very much regret it," he said.
Khalilzad's comments come after Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday voiced his concerns about the civilian deaths resulting from the US-led hunt for militants in Afghanistan.
Three Afghans, including a woman and child, died in a US airstrike on Friday. Two children were also wounded in the attack on a militant camp in the southern province of Uruzgan, a Taliban hotbed.
The incident came less than a week after three other civilians were wounded in eastern Nangahar province in a clash between militants and US troops.
In March two children and a woman were killed along with a key Taliban commander in a firefight with US forces in southeastern Paktika province.
A young boy was killed two days before that by US-led troops who were searching a village for a bomb-maker in the eastern province of Kunar.
Despite the civilian deaths, Karzai said he remained committed to coalition efforts in Afghanistan.
The United States leads a coalition force of over 18,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly battling militants in the restive south and east of the country.
Since 2001, US-led forces have mistakenly killed scores of civilians in their hunt for insurgents.
05/05/2005 14:37 GMT