|
Villagers Mourn Wedding Guests Killed in U.S. Bomb Raid
 |
| The Pentagon has not yet conceded the deaths were caused by a stray U.S. bomb |
KABUL,
July 2 (News Agencies) - Villagers in central Afghanistan have begun
mourning the deaths of 40 members of a wedding party who were killed
in an apparently botched U.S. bombing raid, local officials said
Monday, July 1.
“There
are preparations for the official mourning of the martyrs in Dehrawad
according to the people’s religious beliefs,” an official of
Uruzgan’s provincial administration, who gave his name as Besmellah,
told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Authorities
in Dehrawad, a district of Uruzgan some 120 kilometers (70 miles)
north of the main southern city of Kandahar, were still assessing the
damage of Sunday night’s attack, June 30, he said by satellite
telephone.
“Teams
have been sent from the provincial capital to assess the damages and
to ascertain the number [of casualties],” he said.
Two
other local officials told AFP late Monday that 40 people, mostly
women and children, were killed and another 120 wounded when the U.S.
planes attacked Kakrakai village as wedding guests fired weapons in
traditional celebration.
Meanwhile,
the Afghan government and U.S. military Tuesday, July 2, began
investigating an apparent accidental bombing of a wedding party in
central Afghanistan that locals say killed 40 people, as villagers
began mourning the dead.
U.S.
helicopters were ferrying a team of soldiers from Bagram Air Base 50
kilometers (30 miles) north of here to the remote village of Dehrawad
in Uruzgan province, 400 kilometers south-west of the Afghan capital.
“Because
of the disparity of the reports the Afghan government in conjunction
with the [U.S.-led] coalition is going to send a team down... to do an
investigation,” U.S. military chief spokesman in Afghanistan,
Lieutenant Colonel Roger King, told AFP by phone from Bagram.
U.S.
military officials say a bomb went astray during an air attack that
was launched after a coalition reconnaissance mission was fired by
anti-aircraft artillery near the village of Tirin Kot, 30 kilometers
east of Dherawad.
The
region around Tarin Khowt was believed to be a stronghold of fighters
loyal to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the fugitive leader of the ousted
Taliban regime.
U.S.
forces recently launched an operation to hunt down Mullah Omar, whose
ancestral home was in Dherawad according to the Afghan Islamic Press.
“The
fire that we received from the ground, that would probably be the
heaviest fire we’ve seen in at least a month,” King said.
King
said the coalition reconnaissance mission had included a pre-planned
strike by a B-52 bomber on a previously identified anti-aircraft
artillery site that had fired in the past on U.S. forces.
The
B-52 fighter jet dropped precision guided bombs against an
anti-aircraft weapons site that was away from Tarin Khowt, King added,
confirming that one of the bombs went astray.
The
anti-aircraft weapon that fired on an AC-130 accompanying the B-52 was
different from another one which had been targeted for the B-52
strike, he said.
“We
don’t know anything about a wedding party,” King said.
Karzai,
in a state radio broadcast, said “a number” of people had died,
ordered emergency assistance for Dherawad and announced a top-level
inquiry.
“We
have learned with regret that a number of our compatriots have been
martyred and injured as a result of accidental bombing in Dehrawad
district,” the president said.
Two
officials in Uruzgan province told AFP that 40 people had died and 120
were wounded.
“It
was a wedding party in which some people were firing in jubilation and
the Americans misunderstood and bombarded the place,” said one
official, requesting anonymity.
Yar
Mohammad, the brother of Uruzgan’s governor, said it was possible
the American planes mistook celebratory gunshots at the wedding as
enemy fire.
“Forty
people, minors and adults, among them only 10 men, were killed,” he
said by satellite phone from Uruzgan.
The
U.S. military has apologized for the deaths. “The U.S. government
extends its deepest sympathies to those who may have lost love ones as
a result of this incident and to those who may have suffered any
injuries,” said King.
The
Pentagon has not yet conceded that the deaths were caused by the stray
U.S. bomb.
“It
is unclear at this point if those civilian casualties were the result
of our errant bomb, or if they were the result of anti-aircraft
artillery,” said a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Commander Jeff
Davis.
|
