Afghan authorities said Sunday NATO air strikes had killed 52 people, mostly civilians

Afghan authorities said Sunday NATO had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, in air strikes.
  
In the southern province of Helmand, local authorities said at least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed and six injured in an air raid Saturday.
  
US Marines in Helmand's Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement. "During the air strike, two civilian houses were targeted which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded," it said.
 
The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women. "ISAF are aware of the reports that civilians were allegedly killed in an ISAF air strike," Major Tim James, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told AFP. "(The) Regional Command South West has sent a joint assessment team to the area to look into the allegation and they will issue their findings to the press."
  
Aslam, a local elder of Nawzad district, told AFP he "lost 12 relatives while 10 others including children were injured" in the air strike. He said some shots were fired at ISAF helicopters which flew into the area, adding that the choppers returned after 10 to 20 minutes and fired rockets, killing the "innocent civilians".
  
According to him, five children, five men and two women were killed in the attack.
  
Separately the governor of Nuristan on Sunday told AFP that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by "friendly fire" during US-led air strikes in his troubled northeastern province.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Sunday on the US military to avoid operations that kill Afghan civilians, saying this was his "last warning" to Washington, his office said in a statement.

"The president called this incident a great mistake and the murdering of Afghanistan's children and women, and on behalf of the Afghan people gives his last warning to the US troops and US officials in this regard," his office said.

Karzai on Saturday ordered Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak to take over control of night raids from the NATO occupation forces. Karzai's administration says most civilian casualties occur during such operations and that night raids of civilian homes drive war-weary Afghans against his already-fragile administration.