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Coalition to investigate air strike that killed children

US-led coalition in Afghanistan to investigate an airstrike that killed a two-year-old boy and injured two women.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said that it would investigate an airstrike that killed a two-year-old boy and injured two women.

The International Security Assistance Forces said that Thursday's air strike by an unmanned drone, which hit the village of Faqiran in Helmand, had been aimed at an insurgent, who also died in the raid.

ISAF said it would "immediately conduct an investigation into the incident."

The coalition said it regretted any civilian casualties and was "committed to ensuring that all measures are taken to prevent them.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those killed or wounded," it added.

President Hamid Karzai has in the past criticised the coalition for causing civilian casualties as a result of air strikes.

He has demanded an end to all such incidents along with a stop to all raids on Afghan homes by foreign forces as a condition of signing a long-delayed bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the US which would allow the continuing presence of US troops in the country.

The president has already deferred signing the deal until his second and final term expires in April.

President Karzai "strongly condemns the air strike by Nato forces on a house which killed a child and wounded two women," a statement from his office said late on Thursday.

"This attack shows American forces are not respecting Afghan lives ... As long as unilateral acts and atrocities continue by American forces on our people, we won't sign the BSA."

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