Kabul- Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered a probe into reports of civilian casualties in a US airstrike in western Afghanistan as Afghan lawmakers and the International Red Cross Committee said Wednesday that dozens of villagers lost their lives in the operation.

"Our team went to the villages on Tuesday afternoon and saw dozens of bodies including women and children," Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Barry told German Press Agency dpa.

Several houses were destroyed and among those killed was an aid volunteer for the Red Crescent, ICRC's national partner in Afghanistan, who died along with 13 members of his family.

Afghan lawmakers and residents in Bala Boluk district of western Farah province said that more than 100 civilians were killed when US-led warplanes bombed the district's Girani village.

The ongoing clash erupted on Monday afternoon after Taliban militants killed three villagers they accused of spying for foreign forces and three police officers.

"Based on reports that we received in parliament from local residents and provincial officials today, more than 100 villagers, including women and children were killed," Farah legislator Mohammad Musa Nasrat said.

Obaidullah Hilali, another representative in the lower house of parliament from Farah, said that the death toll could rise "because several people are still under rubble of destroyed houses and people are trying to extract them by tractors."

Karzai, who is currently visiting the United States, ordered the Afghan Ministry of Interior and provincial authorities to investigate the civilian deaths in the latest operation, according to a statement issued by the presidential palace.

Karzai called killings of civilians "unjustifiable and unacceptable" and said that he would raise the issue with President Barack Obama during their planned meeting on Wednesday.

A joint group of Afghan and US military officials headed to Farah province on Wednesday morning, the statement said.

Civilian casualties during anti-Taliban operations have become a delicate issue in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai has pleaded several times with NATO forces to avoid civilian deaths during their operations and has admitted that his repeated demands have strained his relations with some Western countries that have soldiers in the country. (dpa)