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Afghan Civilians Killed in U.S. Bombing; No Al-Qaeda Members in Road Convoy
ISLAMABAD, Dec 27 (News Agencies) - Some 40 civilians were killed and 20 injured early Thursday when U.S. planes pounded a village in eastern Afghanistan, residents said, while an Afghan tribal official insisted Thursday there were no al-Qaeda members in a road convoy that U.S. planes bombed last week, news agencies reported.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said earlier that 25 people were killed, mostly women and children, in the attack on Naka village in Paktika province at 1 a.m. (3 p.m. EST Wednesday), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
However, residents arriving in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, located on the Afghan border, said the death toll was much higher.
"There is no justification for the attack as there are no al-Qaeda or Taliban al-Qaeda or Taliban in our village," resident Abdul Samad told AFP by telephone.
Samad, and another resident Jalal Ahmad, said that in addition to the 40 men, women and children killed, the bombing completely destroyed 30 homes, as well as many head of cattle.
AIP quoted witnesses as saying one of the houses destroyed belonged to Taliban commander Mawlawi Tauhaw. The commander was not at home.
Meanwhile, Abdul Hakim Muneeb, a spokesperson for the tribal council in the eastern province of Paktia, said tribal elders and a few former Taliban members, none of them al-Qaeda members, were traveling in a road convoy bombed by U.S. planes last week.
Muneeb was in Kabul with about 20 other tribal elders for talks with new interim leader Hamid Karzai.
According to Afghan reports, 65 people were killed and 40 wounded when the 20-car convoy was struck by AC-130 gunship planes and fighter aircraft on a road at Sato Kandaw, 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of the provincial capital Gardez, on December 20.
Muneeb told a press conference that 15 of those killed had been in the adjoining village of Waza Jadran, which was also bombed.
U.S. officials say they are convinced the convoy was a "good target" and that the vehicles contained Taliban leaders and members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement who had fled the U.S. bombing campaign in nearby Tora Bora.
Muneeb said no one in the convoy had ever fully supported the Taliban, although one victim, Wali Chaman, had worked in the government during the Taliban's rule.
"He was Taliban, I was Taliban. During the time of the Taliban we were all forced to be Taliban but we all rejected their policies," said Muneeb, who was deputy minister of communications and border affairs for Paktia province during the time of the Taliban.
The tribal elders were on their way to Kabul to attend Karzai's inauguration and his 29-member interim cabinet on Saturday when they were forced by armed bandits to take a detour.
Muneeb said the fact that they were going to congratulate Karzai showed they no longer supported the Taliban.
Tribal leader Saif Ullah said that once the convoy deviated from its route, elders had made contact with Karzai and U.S. officials to alert them that they were traveling on a side road. But that did not prevent the attack.
Muneeb dismissed claims by U.S. military officials that U.S. aircraft had been fired at with Stinger missiles by al-Qaeda members in the convoy.
"There were no al-Qaeda members," Muneeb said. "Whoever says that should be brought before court."
Muneeb said Karzai, during talks with Paktia tribal elders on Wednesday night, agreed to take up the matter with the U.S. authorities.
The elders had also appealed for an end to bombing in the province.
"There are no terrorists in Paktia," Muneeb said.
Karzai's Border Affairs Minister Amanullah Zadram claimed on Monday that at least four al-Qaeda members were in the convoy.
In another development, the U.S. daily newspaper, the New York Times, reported Thursday that the U.S. military is offering incentives to Afghan forces to take the lead in the search for bin Laden in Tora Bora's caves of instead of risking the lives of its own troops.
U.S. troop deployments to the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, where remnants of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network are still likely hiding, has been put on hold while Afghan commanders are pressed to probe the area, U.S. officials told the daily.
The Afghan fighters are being offered incentives including weapons, money and winter clothing, said unnamed officials.
"It is a matter of finding the right mix of incentives to get them to play a more active role," a senior military official in Washington said. "If we are successful, they will do it."
However, the official said that if the Afghan militia balk at committing the number of troops U.S. military leaders believe are needed for the job, U.S. troops would probably have to be sent in.
Besides the risky job of flushing out al-Qaeda fighters from the cave complex in the Tora Bora region, the officials said the operation by U.S. troops would require a substantial base to house them in an area where anti-American sentiment lingers.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported Wednesday that the U.S. military plans to move some of its Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Citing unnamed U.S. defense officials, the network said preparations for opening a prison camp at Guantanamo Bay were already under way, but the facility will not be complete until about mid-January.
The camp is expected to hold the detainees in which the United States has the greatest interest, said the NBC News report.
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