KABUL, July 2 (IslamOnline & News agencies) - Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah Tuesday deplored as unjustifiable the U.S. bombardment of a wedding party in a remote village, where local officials said 40 people were killed. Whereas U.S. military officials claim that the 2,000 pound bomb dropped by a B-52 bomber hit an unpopulated area and not an Afghan village, news agencies reported.

"It is understandable that there are possible civilian casualties in military operations, but an incident with such magnitude and such casualties under such conditions is by no means justifiable," Abdullah told a press conference in the Afghani capital Kabul, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

His blunt criticism comes as Afghan and U.S. officials, at odds over what led to Sunday night's strike on a village in Dehrawad district in central Uruzgan province, conduct a joint investigation into the botched raid.

Afghani President Hamid Karzai asked U.S. forces to take "every necessary measure" to avoid further civilian deaths, the Minister said.

Karzai urged the United States "to fully stop the repetition of such awkward incidents, and ensure that military operations aimed at finding terrorists do not harm civilians."

Abdullah also called for "strong measures" to avoid further civilian casualties.

"It has been a tragic event, a very tragic event, a very regrettable event," he said.

Uruzgan officials said the bomb hit "a wedding party in which some people were firing in jubilation and the Americans misunderstood and bombarded the place."

However, the United States, for its part, rejected such accounts, insisting their planes came under heavy direct attack. In apparent contradiction, U.S. officials later claimed that they did not hit a village, but the bomb hit a deserted area.

"A ground observer actually watched it drop, and it did not drop on a populated area," a U.S. official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The errant bomb was one of seven 2,000-pound laser guided bombs dropped by a B-52 bomber in a strike on a cave and bunker complex in the area of Tarin Kowt, U.S. military officials said.

The targets - two bunker complexes and five cave complexes - were designated by observers on the ground equipped with laser devices, officials said.

A U.S. special forces AC-130 gunship also went into action that night when U.S. and coalition special forces on the ground reported they came under heavy machinegun fire during a reconnaissance mission, U.S. military officials said.

U.S. military spokesmen claimed the AC-130 returned fire when it came under anti-aircraft fire.

However, a second Pentagon official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the ground observer's report that the errant bomb landed in an unpopulated area "certainly makes less likely the possibility that that was the cause."