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Bombed wedding2 { July 2 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10987-2002Jul1.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10987-2002Jul1.html
Errant U.S. Bomb Hits Civilians
Military Admits Error but Doesn't Confirm Afghan Reports of 40 Deaths
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 2, 2002; Page A01
A bomb dropped by U.S. warplanes on a cave complex in southern Afghanistan yesterday missed its target and inflicted an unknown number of casualties, U.S. military officials said. Afghan officials and area residents said about 40 members of a wedding party were killed and 100 others were wounded, which would make it the worst loss of civilian life at American hands since the war in Afghanistan began.
The incident occurred during a raid by U.S. warplanes and Special Operations troops on suspected hiding places of fugitive Taliban leaders in Uruzgan Province, the home region of former Taliban leader Mohammad Omar. Omar has been the subject of a months-long hunt by U.S. forces.
U.S. military officials said they could not confirm that a wedding party was attacked or possible numbers of civilian casualties. But if the Afghan reports were accurate, it would mark the most damaging in a series of errant U.S. attacks that have angered some Afghans, especially in the south, where resentment against the U.S. military presence appears to be building among the predominant Pashtun population.
In a statement issued in Bagram, the U.S. base north of Kabul, the military said, "We extend our deepest sympathies to those who may have lost loved ones as a result of this incident and to those who may have suffered injuries."
But another statement, issued by the Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for the war, was more reticent, saying only that the U.S. action "may have resulted in civilian casualties." It omitted any statement of regret or sympathy.
The bombing follows several other instances in which U.S. and allied forces pursuing al Qaeda fighters and their Taliban allies have killed or wounded civilians, as well as months of raids by U.S. Special Operations troops in the south in which civilians were detained for questioning and subsequently let go.
Pashtun unhappiness with the direction of the new government in Afghanistan -- and the consequent antagonism toward its major backer, the U.S. government -- has been growing since last month's meeting of a loya jirga, or grand council, to select a new government. At the session, the hold of ethnic Tajiks on the central government was strengthened at the expense of the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group.
The bombing also follows by less than a week a firefight between the Pakistani army and al Qaeda forces hiding out in the heavily Pashtun area of Pakistan along the Afghan border in which 10 Pakistani soldiers and two al Qaeda members were killed. Pakistan launched the raid only after weeks of American pressure. Maulana Fazle ur-Rehman, a leading Pakistani cleric, told the Associated Press yesterday that if U.S.-backed operations continue in the area, "There will be riots and civil disobedience."
The basic facts behind the bombing were murky yesterday, and U.S. military spokesmen said an inquiry would be launched today, with investigators traveling to the area and bringing reporters with them.
It was not clear whether all the casualties were inflicted by the wayward bomb, or whether some also were caused by an Air Force Special Operations AC-130 gunship that was operating in the area. It also is possible that some people were hurt by antiaircraft fire falling back to the ground.
According to U.S. military spokesmen, the incident occurred about 2 a.m. local time (4:30 p.m. Sunday, EDT) near the Helmand River village of Deh Rawod, about 70 miles north of Kandahar. Mohammad Omar grew up in the village and the nearby town of Tarin Kowt, and there has been speculation that he has taken refuge in the cave-combed valleys of the region.
"We were in the process of conducting a planned operation that consisted of coalition and ground forces," said Maj. Gary Tallman, a U.S. military spokesman at Bagram. When U.S. and allied troops who were on a reconnaissance mission reported coming under fire, an Air Force AC-130 Special Operations gunship was called in to support them, another spokesman said. But when that aircraft arrived, said Tallman, it came under "deliberate and sustained antiaircraft fire."
The gunship, which carries machine guns and a 105-millimeter artillery piece, then fired at the ground. "A very large amount of suspected enemy ground fire was observed throughout the engagement," he said.
At the same time, Tallman continued, a B-52 heavy bomber dropped seven GBU-31 2,000-pound precision-guided bombs on "an identified complex of caves." At that point, he said, "One of the bombs apparently malfunctioned."
Tallman said he was aware of claims that the U.S. warplanes had inflicted more than 100 civilian casualties, but said he could confirm only four. Those were wounded Afghan children who were evacuated by helicopter for treatment at the U.S. base near Kandahar, another spokesman said.
The U.S. military tends to be skeptical of claims that they have hurt bystanders. The last time a wedding party was supposedly hit, one U.S. officer said yesterday, "Even the 'bride' had a beard and an AK-47." He added, "This group is masterful at disinformation."
But an Afghan Defense Ministry official rejected that view, saying that the celebrants at the wedding party yesterday were firing weapons into the air, as is traditional in Pashtun weddings, the Reuters news service reported. "More than 30 people were killed," said the official, Dr. Gulbuddin. "It was a wedding ceremony. . . . Americans have confessed that they made a mistake."
Reports from Kandahar quoted Afghan officials in the area as saying that 40 or more civilians may have died.
Among the wounded was Haji Mohammed Anwar, a political ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and one of the first prominent local figures who rose up against the Taliban that was allied with the al Qaeda terrorist network, the Associated Press reported.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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