Aid agency says more than 80 dead in Afghan area Thursday December 6, 4:55 AM

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Aid agency Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF) raised concern on Wednesday over the fate of civilians in the Afghan conflict, saying its workers picked up more than 80 dead in an area heavily bombed by U.S. planes. MSF said that in the period from December 1 to 3 its teams had carried more than 80 dead and 50 wounded civilians from Tora Bora and nearby villages.

MSF operated an ambulance service, taking the wounded to hospitals in Koghiani and Jalalabad.

"These figures do not of course take into account all the victims and the indeterminable number of dead caused by these bombardments," MSF said in a statement.

The wounded included a family whose father had been killed, the mother badly wounded and the four children also wounded. A six-year-old child had lost an eye and had a leg and forearm amputated, MSF said.

"The latest events raise questions, from the viewpoint of international humanitarian law, over the proportionality of the military response and its consequences for civilians," MSF said.

"International law and the Geneva Conventions, which are supposed to protect civilians in conflicts, must be respected by all actors in the war, notably by the coalition led by the Americans who say they are acting in the name of civilisation and of respect for humanitarian values," it added.

Security conditions had deteriorated so badly that MSF's expatriate team had had to leave Jalalabad on Wednesday morning for Peshawar in neighbouring Pakistan, MSF said.

An Afghan MSF team was maintaining the ambulance service and its work in the Koghiani hospital, it said.