Taleban leaders in bombed village: US

4 Jul, 2002 08:56 AM3 mins to read

BAGRAM - As American and Afghan investigators yesterday probed accounts of the killing of 40 civilians by United States warplanes, US officials said that senior Taleban leaders had been sheltering in the village.

A US special forces team had surveyed the area at least four times in the past two weeks, and each time planes had been fired on by anti-aircraft guns, US Major Gary Tallman of the investigating team said.

American forces on the ground had reliable information from several sources that senior Taleban leaders sheltered in the tiny village where the wedding party was attacked, Tallman told a pool reporter from US forces magazine Stars and Stripes.

US military investigators arrived in the remote village of Deh Rawud in central Afghanistan to determine what happened.

Accompanied by two Afghan Government ministers, several tribal elders and an embassy staffer, they spent two hours at the site.

On Monday, US troops were positioning to surround and search the village when they saw more anti-aircraft fire, Tallman said, adding he had spoken to the senior special forces officer who had planned the operation.

The commander told Tallman that spotters on the ground with laser targeting devices had directed AC-130 gunships to attack the anti-aircraft sites, which the commander said were often placed near homes to discourage attacks.

Afghan officials and locals maintain the villagers were merely firing in the air to celebrate the wedding of the son and daughter of two tribal elders, with 500 guests assembled for a five-day party.

Survivors, among them young girls and old women, have told of the carnage as their party was shattered by a hail of metal from at least two gunships. One woman described it as "like an abattoir", while another said bodies were "flying like straws".

Information from the US military has so far trickled out slowly and has appeared contradictory at times.

At Bagram air base, US Army spokesman Colonel Roger King has said a ground patrol called in air support after feeling threatened by automatic weapons fire.

He said the subsequent firing on the AC-130 gunships was sustained and hostile, and not consistent with a wedding party.

In Washington, the Pentagon said yesterday that investigators had seen blood during its two hour visit to the village, but had not seen graves or bodies.

"They saw some evidence of damage, but there was no determination of what caused the damage," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said.

Muslims bury their dead as soon as possible. The Stars and Stripes reporter said villagers had offered to show the team to the "garden" where the bodies had been buried, although they had explained the team would have to drive there.

The reporter said it was not clear why the investigating team had not visited the grave site.

An American official said the US planned to provide aid to the village whether or not the US was to blame.

- REUTERS

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