KABUL, Afghanistan — Two of the most contentious issues dividing the United States and President Hamid Karzai’s administration re-emerged as the Afghan leader condemned American-led forces for killing eight women in airstrikes on Sunday and denounced his American allies for continuing to hold hundreds of Afghan prisoners.

After the coalition initially said that it needed time to investigate Afghan reports of the deaths, by evening it confirmed that the civilians had died in airstrikes launched early Sunday in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. It said the strikes were carried out “solely with the intent of countering known insurgents,” and offered its sympathies to the families of those slain. It did not give a number of dead; Afghan officials said eight women who were out collecting firewood had died.

While Mr. Karzai’s condemnation was likely to rankle some Western officials, it was in keeping with how he has responded to the killing of Afghan bystanders by both coalition forces and the Taliban, which is responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Instead, the presidential palace reserved its strongest language for the continued detention of some 600 Afghans at what was once the main American prison here. Mr. Karzai’s office said in a statement that keeping the prisoners was a “serious breach” and a “serious violation” of a deal struck this year, under which the United States agreed to transfer control of the prison to Afghan authorities on Sept. 9.