Joint probe launched into deadly raid

? The U.S.-led coalition, Afghan government and the United Nations will launch a joint probe into last week’s deadly raid in a village in the country’s west, a top NATO official said Saturday.

Afghan and U.N. officials says some 90 civilians, most of them children, were killed in the village of Azizabad in the western Herat province on Aug. 22. The U.S.-led coalition maintains that 25 militants and five civilians died.

The incident has caused an outrage in Afghanistan, where the issue of civilian casualties has been a long standing point of contention between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.

So far, neither side has produced conclusive evidence to support their claim.

Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the chief spokesman for the NATO-led force said Saturday that the Afghan government, U.S.-led coalition and the U.N. mission here have agreed to a joint probe.