40 killed as US bombs wedding party

Published July 2, 2002

KABUL, July 1: US bombing killed 40 people at a wedding party in southern Afghanistan on Sunday night, a local official said on Monday. But the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said there were over 100 deaths.

“According to our reports 40 people have been killed and another 60 to 70 people wounded,” an official in Uruzgan province said.

The bomb attack was on a wedding party in Kakrakai village, in Dehrawad district of Uruzgan, north of Kandahar.

“It happened around midnight. It was a wedding party in which some people were firing in jubilation and the Americans misunderstood and bombarded the place,” the official said.

The AIP, citing “informed sources”, said more than 100 people including women and children were killed in the raid.

In Washington, a US defence official said that a bomb had gone astray during an air attack on an anti-aircraft artillery gun that was fired at a coalition reconnaissance patrol in Uruzgan.—AFP