Bush calls Afghan president after U.S. bombing of civilians

(AP)Fri Jul 5, 3:59 PM ET

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine - President George W. Bush telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday to express condolences for the deaths of Afghan civilians killed in a U.S. bombing.

Bush spoke with Karzai for about five minutes Friday morning before leaving on a long holiday weekend in Maine, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

"The president expressed his sympathies for the families there whose loved ones lost their lives. They discussed the fact-finding mission that is ongoing to determine the cause and they both recommitted to their mutual efforts to fight terrorism," Buchan said.

In the Afghan capital, Kabul Radio reported that Bush expressed sorrow for the bombing, emphasized his commitment to a full investigation, assured Karzai that such an incident will not happen again, and reiterated that the United States is a friend to Afghanistan.

On Monday, U.S. planes bombed a village in central Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, where Afghans said 44 civilians were killed and more than 100 wounded, including women and children celebrating a wedding.

"Certainly, the president expressed to President Karzai that this was a tragic loss," Buchan said Friday.

A small group of protesters gathered in front of the White House on Friday to demand investigations into all cases of civilian casualties since the U.S. military campaign began in October.

Shouting "No more innocent victims" over a bullhorn, Afghan-born Masuda Sultan, 24, also demanded that the U.S. government create an Afghan victims fund. Sultan, who lives in New York, said 19 of her family members were killed in a U.S. airstrike near Kandahar on Oct. 22.

Khalida Nadi, who moved from Kabul to New York 15 years ago, cried as she held up a picture of a child hospitalized after Monday's airstrike.

"If they (U.S. officials) don't change their military action, it's going to be worse," she said as her two daughters, 5 and 7, both with American flags on their shirts, clung to her.

"If mistakes like this continue, people will react and the whole effort will fail," said her husband, Dawer.

In the first anti-American demonstration in Afghanistan since the Taliban fell from power, about 200 people stopped traffic in Kabul on Thursday to express outrage at Monday's airstrike.