Kabul, Aug. 26 (AP): The UN said today that it had found “convincing evidence” that US coalition troops and Afghan forces killed some 90 civilians, including 60 children, in airstrikes in western Afghanistan.

The UN said it based its findings solely on the testimony of villagers and meetings with Afghan officials, and did not provide photos or evidence that its investigators saw any graves.

President Hamid Karzai’s government, in a harshly worded statement, ordered its ministries of foreign affairs and defence to regulate the presence of foreign troops and try to negotiate an end to “airstrikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians”.

The US coalition has said it killed 25 militants and five civilians in an operation in Shindand district of Herat province on Friday.

Karzai’s statement appears to be aimed at both international forces operating in Afghanistan: the US-led coalition, which conducts special forces counter-terrorism operations and trains the fledgling Afghan army and police, and the UN-mandated Nato-led force tasked to provide security for the war-ravaged nation.

The accusation from the world body will likely fuel tensions among the US coalition, the UN and the Afghan government. Karzai’s spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said today that the decision was made after Afghan officials “lost patience” with foreign forces, and the killings and detentions of civilians during raids in remote villages.

“We do not want international forces to leave Afghanistan until the time our security institutions are able to defend Afghanistan independently,” Hamidzada said today. But the presence of those forces has to be based “within the framework of Afghan law with respect to international law”, Hamidzada said.