President Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that US allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in Afghanistan. Obama told CNN in an interview that aired today that he doesn't know what how the US-allied Northern Alliance behaved in November 2001, but he wants a full accounting before deciding how to move forward.
"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have even in war," Obama said. "And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of the laws of war ... we have to know about that." The president's comments seem to reverse officials' statements from Friday, when they said they had no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war who human rights groups allege were killed by US-backed forces. (More Afghanistan stories.)