- (AFP) - Eleven villagers, including four children, were
killed in a US bombing raid near their homes in southern Afghanistan, a
district governor said.
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- A US military spokesman said however that only five "armed
anti-coalition militia members" had been killed on the weekend in
Uruzgan province when coalition forces "engaged from the air."
-
- The spokesman had no further details on the incident.
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- Governor Abdul Rahman said the incident occurred on Sunday
night in Char Chino district, 330 kilometres (206 miles) south of the capital
Kabul, after US soldiers had come to the village of Saranaw in search of
suspected militants.
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- "A number of villagers were scared that probably
they would be arrested by the Americans so they left the village with their
families," Rahman said.
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- "As soon as they arrived near a river, planes bombed
them and killed 11 innocent civilians."
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- The dead were four children, three women and four men,
he said.
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- "Today in the morning we went to the site and buried
the bodies.
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- "I personally went and talked to the Americans about
why this incident happened. They said that it was a mistake by our planes
and that the people near the river had weapons."
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- In air raids conducted by the United States in mid-December
some 15 children were killed in Paktia and neighbouring Ghazni province,
both in the southeast of the country. Ghazni also neighbours Uruzgan province.
-
- Nine children were also killed in a daylight air attack
against suspected Taliban in Ghazni on December 6.
-
- Six children and two adults had been killed the previous
night when a wall collapsed during a combined air and ground assault on
a suspected militant compound in Paktia. The US military said the compound
was packed with weapons and explosives.
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- At the time the United Nations expressed fears that such
attacks by the United States only hindered efforts at peace and stability
in the war-ravaged country.
-
- Taliban militants already find support among sections
of the population in their former heartland of southern and eastern Afghanistan
who are hostile to the US military and US-backed government of President
Hamid Karzai.
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