April 10, 2003	Thursday	Safar 7, 1424

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BAGRAM AIR BASE (Afghanistan), April 9: Eleven Afghan civilians were killed in a US bombing raid on Wednesday, the US military said, in the worst incident of its kind in Afghanistan since nearly 50 wedding guests were killed by US aircraft in June last year.

The seven women and four men were killed when their house was hit by a stray 450-kilogram bomb in a raid against a group of unknown attackers in the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said.

“I’m sad to report that 11 Afghan civilians were killed and one was wounded early this morning when a bomb dropped by coalition aircraft landed on a house on the outskirts of Shkin, near the Pakistan border,” US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Lefforge told reporters at Bagram air force base, 50kms north of Kabul.

US Marine Corps AV-8 Harriers had been called in after an Afghan military force checkpoint came under attack near the Shkin fire base in Paktika province just before midnight, he said.

Four Afghan militia forces were wounded in that attack and forces from Shkin pursued the attackers towards the border.

“Two groups of five to 10 enemy personnel were spotted and the Harriers engaged one group with cannon fire,” Lefforge said.

“Another group of enemy forces was identified and close air support attempted to engage them with the GPU-16 thousand-pound (450-kilogram) laser guided bomb,” he said, adding that the incident was under investigation.

There were no coalition casualties and it was not known whether the attackers suffered any, he said. The wounded Afghan soldiers and one injured civilian were medically evacuated and were in stable condition.

Paktika governor Mohammad Ali Jalali said the bombing happened shortly before dawn.

“American planes bombed a house this morning at around 5am (0030 GMT), killing 11 people and wounding one other,” he said.

Wednesday’s bombing error was the worst mistake by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan since 48 people were killed in June last year when US forces mistakenly bombed a wedding party in central Uruzgan province.

Responding to questions on how coalition forces used tipoffs, Col Lefforge said they would not attack based on just one intelligence source.

“We would rather gather more solid evidence and intelligence and go after a solid target than go to after a target that’s based on circumstantial evidence.”

SEARCH: In southern Helmand province a US-led force of more than 500, supported by a dozen helicopters, were searching for guerillas close to where two US Special Forces soldiers were killed in an ambush on March 29.

“Elements of the 504th Parachute Special Regiment and Coalition Task Force 82 and Special Operations Forces launched Operation Resolute Strike in the vicinity of Sangin district in Helmand Province early Tuesday morning,” he said.

Coalition forces arrested 41 people and later released 34.

He could not say how many people coalition forces were fighting.

“We don’t have any coalition injuries at this time, so I would say that the resistance is in our favour,” he said.

Coalition forces also recovered a cache of arms and ammunition which included three shoulder-guided missiles, 17 AK-47 assault rifles, several machineguns, ammunition and C-4 explosives. —AFP