Yeah, brilliant, Tom, like this:
Afghan villagers report at least 40 killed after U.S. helicopters attack Afghan wedding
Tue Jul 2,10:05 AM ET
By CHARLES REX ARBOGAST, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - In a strongly worded statement, the new Afghan government Tuesday demanded the United States take "strong measures" to limit the risk to civilians after a U.S. air attack killed 40 civilians and injured 100 others in central Afghanistan ( news - web sites).
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U.S. Military Unaware of Afghan Wedding Party, Casualties (AP)
Foreign Minister Abdullah, speaking to reporters in Kabul, said coalition military operations against al-Qaida and Taliban should continue. But he said the "whole procedure" for launching attacks "should be reviewed to avoid such incidents" as the Monday bombing around the village of Kakarak in Uruzgan province about 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Kabul.
Abdullah said a total of four villages were attacked in the pre-dawn raid and that 40 civilians were killed and another 100 were injured, including people attending a wedding party. He said all 25 members of one family were killed.
"Strong measures have to be taken to avoid such further incidents," he said. "This situation has to come to an end. Mistakes can take place, human errors are possible, but our people should be assured that every measure was taken to avoid such incidents."
It was the first time Afghan authorities at the national level have issued such a strong statement following a "friendly fire" incident. It reflects the pressure on President Hamid Karzai from his fellow Pashtuns who live in areas where U.S. military operations are contuining more than six months after the collapse of the Taliban.
U.S. and Afghan investigators set out Tuesday for the area to determine the facts behind the attack. The U.S. military said American forces came under fire. Survivors say the planes attacked a wedding, killing mostly women and children.
Pentagon ( news - web sites) officials said that despite initial suspicions, they no longer believed an errant bomb from a U.S. B-52 was responsible.
Karzai met in Kabul on Tuesday with the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill. Afterward, McNeill said he and Karzai had differing accounts of what had happened but he would not elaborate.
"It is not part of the parameters of this coalition to attack innocents," McNeill told reporters at Bagram air base. "In this fight against terrorism, the only people who have a track record of attacking innocents are the terrorists themselves."
U.S. and Afghan investigators left Kabul early Tuesday for the village of Kakarak in Uruzgan province 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of the capital. However, they decided to spend the night in the provincial capital Tarin Kot for security reasons and set out for the village at dawn Wednesday.
The incident is politically sensitive for Karzai, who relies on the United States for much of his support. However, Karzai has close ties to Uruzgan, where he launched his campaign last year to challenge the Taliban during the U.S. bombing campaign.
There was still considerable confusion about the events surrounding the attack, which took place before dawn Tuesday.
Bismullah, a province spokesman, said Afghans in Kakarak were firing weapons in the air during the wedding as is common in rural Afghanistan. He said about 40 people were killed and 70 others wounded.
But the U.S. military questioned that account.
"Normally when you think of celebratory fire — which is something that is not necessarily uncommon — it's random, it's sprayed. It's not directed at a specific target," U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King said Tuesday at Bagram air base north of Kabul. "In this instance the people on board the aircraft felt that the weapons were tracking them and that they were making a sustained effort to engage them."
Noor Mohammed, leader of neighboring Gujran district, said Afghans were "upset because innocent people have died."
Afghan officials Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban, once preached in the area and may be hiding in the mountains.
A cache of weapons, most of them Soviet and Chinese made, were found by U.S. forces in Des Rawat, a day before the assault on the village, King said. However, he denied Omar was a target.
The Central Command acknowledged in a statement issued from its headquarters in Tampa, Fla., that attacks by B-52 and AC-130 aircraft north of Kandahar "may have resulted in civilian casualties."
"The United States expresses its deepest sympathies to those who have lost their loved ones," King said.
He said four of the injured — all under 5 years old — were treated by U.S. forces and were transferred Tuesday to Bagram air base. King said three were in stable condition and the other was in serious condition after lengthy surgery.
Uruzgan, like most of east and south Afghanistan, is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, which made up the core of the Taliban movement. Since the collapse of the Taliban ethnic Pashtuns have felt increasingly marginalized, targeted by minority ethnic groups, who dominate the government.
In these areas, where U.S. special forces and their coalition allies have focused their war against fugitive al-Qaida and Taliban elements, some villagers say they are being wrongly targeted for arrest or harassment as al-Qaida and Taliban suspects.
International human rights agencies have warned of increasing alienation of ethnic Pashtuns, warning it could sow the seeds of future conflicts.
In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Karzai asked the U.S.-led coalition to be cautious following an earlier incident in which a compound was overrun by U.S. special forces, women were tied up — a strict taboo in conservative Muslim society — and a 3-year-old girl drowned in a well where she was hiding.
"I will definitely want the Afghan civilians, the Afghan villages to be immune from accidental damage," Karzai said. "To be sure that they do not receive accidental firing at them. To make sure that our women and children and villages don't suffer."
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said an Air Force B-52 bomber that attacked a cave complex in the same general area of Uruzgan province reported that one of its bombs went astray. Officials said they could not immediately determine where the errant bomb landed.
But two Pentagon officials Tuesday said they did not believe that was the cause. At about the same time as that mission a separate reconnaissance operation involving an undisclosed number of regular and special U.S. forces was under way in the same vicinity.
An American forward air controller on the ground reported fire from anti-aircraft artillery sites and called in the AC-130 gunship to counterattack, Davis said.
Some of the anti-aircraft artillery could have fallen back to the ground and caused casualties, Davis said. King said seven 2,000-pound bombs were dropped in the area.
He also said an Air Force AC-130 gunship also attacked anti-aircraft artillery in the same general area after coalition ground forces came under fire. Some of the anti-aircraft artillery could have fallen back to the ground and caused casualties, Davis said.
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