KABUL, June 18: US-led coalition jets bombed a compound suspected of housing Al Qaeda militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven boys and several militants, officials said on Monday, raising fresh concerns over civilian casualties.
Police said they had detained a suspect in connection with the deadly bus bombing that killed at least 35 people, most of them police trainers.
In an operation backed by Afghan troops, the jets targeted a compound that also contained a mosque and a madressah on Sunday in Zarghun Shah district of Paktika province.
Paktika Governor Akram Akhpelwak said there normally was strong coordination between the government and the coalition and Nato, but that he was not made aware of the missile strike on the madressah beforehand, resulting in the death of seven boys between the ages of 10 and 16.
Local authorities are working with Nato and coalition troops “to have better coordination and to not have these misunderstandings, but today we had a misunderstanding and the people will be unhappy,” Akhpelwak told The Associated Press by telephone. “We will go to the area and discuss the issue with the people and apologise to the people.”
A coalition statement said: “Nefarious activity was occurring at the site.” Spokesman Major Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman, accused Al Qaeda of using “the protective status of a mosque, as well as innocent civilians, to shield themselves”.
Reports indicated seven children at the madressah and “several militants” were killed, and two militants detained, the statement said.
“We are saddened by the innocent lives that were lost as a result of militants’ cowardice,” Belcher said.
Coalition troops had “surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building,” Belcher said. He accused the militants of not letting the children leave the compound.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it had sent a team with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to investigate the incident.
There were new claims of high civilian casualties from the southern province of Uruzgan where fighting raged for three days.
Local officials said up to 60 civilians might have been killed as well as 50 Taliban but this was not confirmed by the Afghan government in Kabul.
The authorities probing a suicide attack on a police bus which killed 35 people on Sunday said they had arrested a man with Taliban links who allegedly filmed the blast.
The man had pictures of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah on his mobile phone, city criminal investigation department chief Alishah Paktiawal said on Monday.
The White House deplored the ‘tragedy’ of seven Afghan children who were killed.—Agencies
