The Afghan government and US military on Tuesday 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.
US helicopters were ferrying a team of soldiers from Bagram Air Base 50 kilometres north of here to the remote village of Dehrawad in Uruzgan province, 400 kilometres south-west of the Afghan capital.
”Because of the disparity of the reports the Afghan government in conjunction with the (US-led) coalition is going to send a team down… to do an investigation,” US military chief representative in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Roger King, told AFP by phone from Bagram.
US 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 kilometres 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.
US 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 US 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 said 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 US military has apologised for the deaths.
”The US 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 conceded that the deaths were caused by the stray US 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 representative, Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis. – Sapa-AFP