Karzai rejects calls for U.S. compensation

'We are telling Americans to be more careful in the future'

Villagers sit on a wall of a courtyard pockmarked with bullet holes, looking into the home of Mohammed Sherif, said to have been damaged in Monday's air raid.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai will issue a warning to the U.S. but will stop short of asking for compensation for the families of those who died in an air raid led by U.S. forces on a village in the south of the country.

"We are telling Americans to be more careful in the future," a close aide to Karzai, Yusuf Nuristani, told The Associated Press.

"With all the sophisticated military equipment they have, it should be no problem for them to evade civilian casualties."

But the warning is unlikely to satisfy either Karzai's political rivals, who are expected to use the incident to bolster their popularity, or those who have called for the government to demand compensation from the United States.

"Innocent people have been killed and it has negative impact on the government largely seen here as pro-American," said Mohammed Anwar Shoab, head of the Afghan Journalist Union.

The incident prompted the first anti-American rally in the capital Kabul since the fall of the former Taliban regime last year.

Some 200 Afghan men and women took part in the demonstration to protest Monday's air raid in which at least 40 civilians reportedly died.

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Compensation was one of the demands made by the protestors, many of them women, who marched on the United Nations offices.

"Urgent (U.S.) compensation should be given to the families of those who died or were injured," Theyba, one of the protest organizers told The Associated Press.

"We condemn terrorism," the organizers said in a pamphlet. "The U.S. should get through to its officers that this kind of incident could destroy relations and the trust between the two nations," the statement said.

No compensation

But the Afghan government has rejected any compensation claims.

Nuristani said the government would help the people, and "probably Americans will do the same on their own," AP has reported.

"We won't ask the U.S. officials for compensation," he said.

Monday's air raid took place in Uruzgan province, in a predominantly Pashtun area described by Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as being "of enormous sympathy for the Taliban and al Qaeda." Most of the Taliban were ethnic Pashtuns.

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah has said he believes about 40 people died from the airborne raids, with another 22 being treated for injuries in a hospital in the southern city of Kandahar.

U.S. officials have not publicly disputed the Afghan figures but say it is still too early to know exactly how many died.

Abdul Malik stands besides the graves of 25 relatives who died in the air raid.

"We just don't know," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark.

"We have to be very, very responsible about numbers because they have meaning and impact, so we're just trying to be very, very cautious about the numbers," she added.

U.S. investigators were continuing their inquiries at the scene of the attack, the southern Afghanistan village of Deh Rawud.

Officials say they believe a large group of guests at a wedding party were standing near an anti-aircraft artillery site when a U.S. AC-130 gunship struck it from the air, killing dozens of civilians.

Newbold said a coalition reconnaissance group had found a cache that included "15 tons of munitions ... including anti-aircraft weapons" about 10 miles from the scene.

He said Monday's action, aimed at unoccupied caves, "was intended to denude the area" to prevent "Taliban individuals" from manning fighting emplacements outside.

The White House issued a statement Tuesday, saying President Bush "extends his deep condolences for the loss of innocent life" in Afghanistan.