Bush offers sympathies to Afghan leader

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (CNN) -- President Bush offered his sympathies Friday to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai for the reported deaths of Afghan civilians in a U.S. raid earlier this week, a Bush administration official said.

Bush spoke with Karzai before leaving the White House for a weekend in Maine.

Deputy White House press secretary Claire Buchan said Bush and Karzai also discussed the on-going "fact-finding mission" to determine what happened Monday, when dozens of Afghan civilians were killed near an area where the U.S. military was carrying out operations.

During their five-minute call, the two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to fighting terrorism, Buchan said.

The White House issued a statement Monday expressing the president's condolences to the Afghan people and pledging that his administration is working "very hard" to find out what happened in Monday's attack.

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

The Afghan Foreign Ministry put the death toll from the raid at about 40; U.S. defense officials said at least 20 people died in the attack and more than 60 were wounded. Witnesses put the death toll at between 120 and 130, however.

U.S. forces were conducting an operation against anti-aircraft artillery near the village, and there have been no reports of a building or other facility being inadvertently struck in the area. The raid occurred in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, in an area known to be "of enormous sympathy for the Taliban and al Qaeda," Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said Wednesday.

Bush is spending the weekend at his parents' home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and will mark his 56th birthday Saturday. He is scheduled to return to the White House on Monday.