An
absolute tragedy the 3 killed in Boston; too bad about the 30 in
Afghanistan
Bomb
kills 30 at Afghan wedding
At
least 30 members of an Afghan wedding party were killed and many more
wounded when a U.S. plane bombed a village in the central province of
Uruzgan today, Afghan officials and residents said
15
April, 2013
The
bombing happened today in a village in the rugged, mountainous region
175 km (105 miles) northeast of the southern city of Kandahar,
residents said.
They
told the local Pashtu service of the BBC at least 120 people had been
either killed or wounded.
A
Defence Ministry official said celebrants were firing into the air,
as is traditional in Pashtun weddings.
"There
was no-one to help last night," resident Abdul Saboor told the
BBC. "We managed to transfer some of the wounded to Kandahar in
the morning. Some of the foreigners' choppers also came to help.
"There
are no Taliban or al Qaeda or Arabs here. These people were all
civilians, women and children."
Defence
Ministry offical Dr Gulbuddin told Reuters: "More than 30 people
were killed. It was a wedding ceremony and some of the participants
were firing in the sky as part of the celebration. Americans have
confessed that they made a mistake."
BOMB
MISSED TARGET
In
Washington, the Pentagon said at least one bomb dropped by Western
warplanes had missed its target in southern Afghanistan today, but
that it could not confirm claims that members of a wedding party had
been killed.
Navy
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said anti-aircraft fire
was directed at an air patrol of "coalition warplanes" and
they had responded with close air support north of Kandahar.
"At
least one bomb was errant. We don't know where it fell," Davis
said. "We are aware of reports of civilian casualties but don't
know if casualties were caused as a result of the bomb."
The
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), responsible for
security in the capital Kabul, 280 km (170 miles) to the north, told
Reuters it had contacted the U.S. liaison office which had heard
nothing of any attack.
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai told the local Bakhtar Information Agency the
"sudden attack" happened in the Dehrawud district of
Uruzgan province.
"We
are trying to organise aid and a commission has gone there headed by
the ministry of frontiers affairs," he said.
The
United States launched air strikes against Afghanistan last year
against the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, blamed for the
September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, and the group's
Taliban protectors.
There
have been several reports of the United States mistakenly attacking
civilian targets since Washington's bombing offensive began.
In
May, the U.S. army rejected reports it had mistakenly attacked a
wedding party after the private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported
that U.S. planes had pounded the village of Bul Khil in Khost
province after mistaking traditional firing at a wedding for an
attack.
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