US military sorry for killing nine Afghanistan children

10.45am - By DAVID BRUNNSTROM


KABUL - The US military has voiced regret for killing nine children in Afghanistan during a weekend air strike it said was meant to target a guerrilla commander.

The children were playing on Saturday in the walled compound of a house at Makur, 85km southwest of the town of Ghazni, when the US A-10 aircraft attacked with gunfire.

A statement from US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty regretted the loss of innocent life and said the "tragic incident" was being investigated.

The military said their bodies were found by troops of the US-led force near that of a "known terrorist."

The US ambassador identified the man as Mullah Wazir, a local figure who bragged of attacks on aid workers, but Afghan officials disputed the assertion Mullah Wazir was killed.

"It has not been ascertained if Mullah Wazir was killed or not, but the house was his," said Haji Assadullah, governor of Ghazni province.

Officials also said two Indians were abducted by suspected Taleban fighters in a southern province on Saturday, but the interior minister said two Turks detained the same day near Kabul were held over a land dispute and not by the guerrillas.

The United Nations said it was "profoundly distressed" by the children's deaths, which it said could have a negative impact among Afghans in the troubled south.

It called for a swift investigation and for the results to be made public.

"This incident, which follows similar incidents, adds to a sense of insecurity and fear in the country," UN Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi said in a statement.

US-led forces have been pursuing remnants of the Taleban overthrown in late 2001 along with Islamic militant allies including members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks among others.

The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Mullah Wazir was "a known financier, organiser and facilitator of terrorist activity" involved in attacks on Afghans working on the Kabul-Kandahar highway and aid workers.

Hours after the strike, suspected Taleban guerrillas kidnapped two Indians working on a US-funded road in neighbouring Zabul province.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said Taleban commander Mullah Roazi, responsible for kidnapping a Turkish road engineer in late October, had been in a village close to where the Indians were abducted, but he did not know if he was to blame.

The kidnapping of the Indians was yet another blow to the single largest reconstruction scheme in Afghanistan, a road project which has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks.

The deaths of the children will likely add to the problems Washington has faced winning hearts and minds in the troubled south, where militants are most active, ahead of elections due next year.

In November, six civilians were killed in an air strike in the southern province of Paktika, and nearly three weeks before that eight members of the same family, including children, died in a similar attack in the province of Nuristan.

In July last year the Afghan government said 48 people had been killed and 117 hurt in Uruzgan province when a US AC-130 gunship attacked a wedding party. The US military said 34 died and 50 were hurt -- mostly women and children -- but said the aircraft had come under fire.

Also Saturday, a bomb blast in the city of Kandahar wounded at least 18 people.

- REUTERS