Gates Waits for Probe Results Before Blaming U.S. Troops for Afghan Civilian Deaths

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he will wait for the results of an investigation into the deaths of Afghan civilians during a bombing raid in western Afghanistan before determining whether U.S. forces were responsible for the civilian casualties.

Speaking during a press conference with U.S. and Afghan press at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Gates said he had "seen those reports" that the Taliban tried to frame the U.S. military for the deaths.

Violence erupted Monday night in the district of Ballubalook in the province of Farah. The U.S. military brought in air support to aid a joint team of U.S. and Afghan troops after the Taliban beheaded three people. Airstrikes killed 25 Taliban fighters.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that women and children were among the dead. The Pentagon confirmed that 11 or 12 people were injured and treated at local hospitals but has not released any numbers that match local reports that as many as 70 people were hurt in the raid. Defense officials also could not confirm any civilian deaths.

Senior defense officials told FOX News on Wednesday that they had not yet ruled out the possibility that the U.S. was responsible for civilian deaths, but said that they had indications that there might have been a "concerted effort by the Taliban to make it look like the U.S. was responsible for civilian casualties."

A U.S. defense official said the initial investigations shows a certain amount of "staging" on the part of the Taliban may have made it look like the U.S. bombings caused the deaths. Investigators are at the scene taking pictures and recording interviews.

Gen. David McKiernen, the top commander in Afghanistan for U.S. and NATO troops, suggested Wednesday that the Taliban beheaded three people in the village in order to ambush the police when they responded.

"The contact grew, the police asked for reinforcements from the Afghan army, and eventually it got to the point where the governor asked for U.S. support in this contact," McKiernan said, noting that the engagement lasted several hours.

The investigation with the Afghan government was launched on Tuesday, he said.

One defense official said the entire incident may have been a setup to lure Afghan and NATO forces to the location to engage them in combat.

"We have some other information that leads us to distinctively different conclusions about the cause of those civilian casualties," McKiernan said. "I'm not gonna tell you that right now until I can confirm the facts but we do have people out there on the ground with our Afghan counterparts to get to the truth on this.

"It is certainly a technique of the Taliban and other insurgent groups to claim civilian casualties at every event, so we've just got to do the right investigation on this," he added.

Gates noted that civilian casualties are down by 40 percent this year over last while deaths of U.S. and Afghan forces are up 75 percent year to year.

He added that when the U.S. military kills civilians it is "accidental whereas when the Taliban does it, it has been deliberate."

Gates said he is satisfied with military efforts by the Pakistani army to fend off Taliban trying to encroach on the capital from the Swat Valley region in the Northwest Frontier Province. Gates said the "Taliban in Pakistan has overreached," and getting so close to Islamabad had "served as an alarm that these violent extremists are a significant danger to the government."

Gates added that he believed the Taliban has "very little chance" of ever seizing Pakistan's nuclear weapons, a recent source of concern as the extremist group makes its way toward the capital.

FOX News' Justin Fishel and Steve Centanni contributed to this report.