BAJAUR, May 9: Ten people among the 31 injured, who were wounded in a cruise missile attack by American forces on a village in the Kunar province of Afghanistan on Tuesday, died in a hospital in the provincial capital Assadabad on Wednesday.

The residents of Duberi village told newsmen of the Bajaur tribal agency, who visited the area on Wednesday, that panic had gripped the entire area after the missiles were fired on the village.

At first, the people said, they suspected that the village had been attacked with helicopters, but when they found the pieces of cruise missile, they learnt the fact.

Eye-witnesses said that on Tuesday three US helicopters circled over the village for about 30 minutes, adding that later in the day missiles were fired from an unknown location which hit the village.

An official of the Kunar administration told newsmen that cruise missiles were fired at the hideouts of Taliban and Al Qaeda men, but it missed the target and hit the civilian population resulting in injuries to 31 people.