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U.S. Bomb Kills Eleven Afghan Civilians
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A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8 Harrier 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bomb on an Afghan house
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BAGRAM
AIR BASE, Afghanistan, April 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)
– U.S. aircraft on Wednesday, April 9, claimed the lives of 11
Afghan civilians in the worst incident of its kind in Afghanistan
since nearly 50 wedding guests were killed by U.S. warplanes last
June.
The
seven women and four men were killed when their house was hit by a
"stray" 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bomb in a raid against a
group of unknown attackers in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan,
a U.S. military spokesman claimed.
"I'm
sad to report that 11 Afghan civilians were killed and one was wounded
early this morning when a bomb dropped by coalition aircraft landed on
a house on the outskirts of Shkin near the Pakistani border,"
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Lefforge told reporters at
Bagram Air Force Base 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul.
U.S.
Marine Corps AV-8 Harriers had been called in after an Afghan military
force checkpoint came under attack near the Shkin fire base in Paktika
province just before midnight (1930 GMT), he claimed.
Four
Afghan militia forces were wounded in that attack and forces from
Shkin pursued the attackers towards the border, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"Two
groups of five to 10 enemy personnel were spotted and the Harriers
engaged one group with cannon fire," Lefforge said.
"Another
group of enemy forces was identified and close air support attempted
to engage them with the GPU-16 thousand-pound (450-kilogram) laser
guided bomb," he said, adding that the incident was under
investigation.
There
were no coalition casualties and it was not known whether the
attackers suffered any, he said.
The
wounded Afghan soldiers and one injured male civilian were medically
evacuated and were in stable condition.
Paktika
provincial governor Mohammad Ali Jalali told AFP the bombing happened
shortly before dawn.
"American
planes bombed a house this morning at around 5.00 a.m. (0030 GMT)
killing 11 people and wounding one other," he confirmed.
Wednesday's
bombing was the worst since 48 people were killed last June when U.S.
forces "mistakenly" bombed a wedding party in central
Uruzgan province.
Responding
to questions on how they used tip offs, Lefforge said they would not
attack based on just one intelligence source.
"We
would rather gather more solid evidence and intelligence and go after
a solid target than go to after a target that's based on
circumstantial evidence."
Meanwhile
in southern Helmand province a U.S.-led force of more than 500
supported by a dozen helicopters were searching for extremists close
to where two U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in an ambush on
March 29.
"Elements
of the 504th Parachute Special Regiment and Coalition Task Force 82
and Special Operations Forces launched Operation Resolute Strike in
the vicinity of Sangin district in Helmand Province early Tuesday
morning," he said.
"We
don't have any coalition injuries at this time, so I would say that
the resistance is in our favor," he said.
A
U.S.-led coalition force of some 11,500 troops, including 8,500 U.S.
forces, in currently hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants in
Afghanistan.
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