A new report released by the American Forces in Afghanistan indicates 20-30 Afghan civilian deaths in the western Province of Farah on May 4th.

The same report claims 60-65 deaths of the Taliban armed rebels. The air raid which brought about national and international criticism on US air raids inside Afghanistan took place on 4th of May in the village “Giranai” of Bala Blook district of Farah Province.

Earlier the government of Afghanistan had put the civilian death toll to 140. An even greater number of civilian deaths was claimed by the locals and other organizations. Hillary Clinton, the US foreign Secretary apologized for the tragic incident and maintained that the US government is making efforts to avoid civilian causalities in Army operations. She also maintained that the number of deaths in Farah incident will be assessed properly.

The report comes 16 days after the incident took place. The report claims more militant deaths. The report reads that before the eruption of conflict a large number of armed Taliban militants including foreign Taliban had been to the villages of “Ganjabad” and “Garanai” and had “asked for money from the villagers”.

The report also reveals that according to the local officials “Taliban had killed three ex-officials of the government.”

According to the report Afghan and US soldiers also witnessed the fleeing of over 300 villagers to avoid the clashed between the Taliban and security forces. The Afghan and US forces entered the “Garanai” village to ward off the Taliban militants when they came under fire by over 200-300 Taliban militants. Two Afghan police officers were also killed in the initial clashes. Over all five Afghan police officials lost lives in the clashes.

In the clashes request was submitted for American help on the basis of which these areas came under US Air raids.

The report says that the Taliban militants fired on the security forces from the rooftops and used the locals as “Human Shields”

The Afghan President and US Ambassador to Afghanistan had paid a visit to the area yesterday where President Karzai expressed his condolences and announced a compensation package for the survivors of the attacks and US ambassador, according to the Presidential spokesperson, submitted apologies.