Meanwhile, the Pentagon is now backing off a nearly two-month-old denial of a mass killing of civilians in an Afghan village. Afghan officials, local residents and UN investigators say up to ninety civilians, including sixty children, were killed in the US attack on Azizabad on August 22nd. The Pentagon has repeatedly insisted the bombing only killed up to seven civilians and two dozen militants. But it now says thirty civilians were killed. A Pentagon investigator concluded many more civilians were buried in the rubble than the Pentagon had claimed. The reports of a ninety-person death toll have been backed by cell phone footage taken by local residents of scores of bodies, witness accounts and freshly dug grave sites.