U.S. Bombing on Afghan Convoy Said to Kill 65

December 22, 2001 1:45 am EST

By Peter Graff

KABUL (Reuters) - A convoy destroyed by U.S. air strikes in eastern Afghanistan had opened fire on U.S. aircraft just before it was bombed, a U.S. diplomatic mission official in Kabul said on Saturday.

"We apparently had evidence that this convoy had al Qaeda forces. We circled the convoy," said the official, who declined to be identified.

"I'm told by Centcom (Central Command) that we were fired on twice by the convoy using anti-aircraft missiles, which they took as a hostile act and proceeded to attack the convoy," he said.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said U.S. warplanes bombed a convoy of Afghan tribal elders as they were going to Kabul to attend Saturday's swearing in of an interim government, killing 65 people. AIP said locals fed the wrong information to the Pentagon.

"I think we'll take a hard look a it," Gen. Tommy Frank, head of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, told reporters as he arrived for ceremonies to inaugurate the new interim government in Kabul.

A GOOD TARGET

"It looks like it was a good target at this point," he said.

Residents of the area said supporters of the incoming leader, Hamid Karzai, had come under attack after they left a tribal meeting en route for Kabul and informers apparently told U.S. contacts that they were pro-Taliban.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said U.S. military AC-130 gunships and Navy jet fighters attacked and destroyed a convoy believed to be carrying Taliban leadership, allies of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

The Pentagon said it hit its intended target after receiving intelligence reports.

"There is no doubt in their (U.S. military's Central Command) mind that they hit what they wanted to hit and that it was the bad guys," Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters.

"It was Taliban leadership. Central Command went back and looked at everything that they did and they hit exactly what they wanted to hit," Lapan said.

He said the air strikes occurred at about 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, 25 miles west of Khost in eastern Paktia province.

AIP said dead included tribal elders and former mujahideen commanders going to Kabul to attend Saturday's inauguration of the interim government.

Bodies of five victims had been brought to Khost by Friday evening, AIP said.

It quoted its sources in the area as saying one of the dead was "commander" Mohammad Ibrahim, a brother of the famous former mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Haqqani had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s but became the tribal affairs minister in the Taliban government, which was swept from power last month after punitive U.S.-led bombing for sheltering bin Laden and his followers.

A local resident told the BBC that those killed included Naeem Kochi, the head of the Ahmadzai tribe, a man who has changed sides frequently and had been linked with the Taliban in the past.

Fourteen vehicles in the convoy were completely destroyed, AIP said quoting a member of the ruling provincial shura, or council, Sayed Yaqeen.

The BBC quoted another shura member, Haji Saifullah, as saying the convoy was bombed after it had diverted to a bypass from the main Khost-Gardez road.

Some locals misinformed the Americans that the travelers were members of bin Laden's al Qaeda, he said.

He said the convoy had turned to the bypass because some local people did not allow it to travel on the main road.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/356/world/Karzai_says_he_doubts_convoy _s:.shtml

Karzai says he doubts convoy struck by U.S. was carrying anti-Taliban Afghans

By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 12/22/2001 13:06

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The new Afghan prime minister, Hamid Karzai, said Saturday he doubted reports that U.S. warplanes had mistakenly bombed tribal elders loyal to his government in an airstrike on a convoy in eastern Afghanistan.

But Karzai said he would discuss the attack with U.S. officials. The Pentagon on Saturday reiterated that it had solid intelligence the convoy was carrying Taliban leaders and said U.S. planes came under missile fire from the trucks.

AC-130 warplanes and fighter jets attacked the convoy near the eastern Afghan town of Khost on Friday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said many were killed in the strike; the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported 65 dead and 40 wounded.

The Pentagon said it was carrying fugitive Taliban leaders leaving a ''command and control compound'' that also was struck.

But tribal leaders in Khost province said the victims were Afghans, including Muslim clerics, invited to attend the installation of Karzai's interim government Saturday.

Karzai said Saturday after his swearing in that tribal elders had asked him to investigate the claim. ''I don't believe it. I don't think it's true,'' he said. But if it is, ''we will discuss it with our friends,'' the Americans.

Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command said Saturday that American officials were certain they had not made a mistake.

''We are sure that was a military convoy,'' he told The Associated Press by telephone. ''The convoy was Taliban leadership. That convoy was destroyed.''

Lowell said that after the planes engaged the convoy, two missiles, possibly shoulder-fired, were launched against them. The planes were not threatened by the fire, he said.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces, was asked about the attacks as he attended the inauguration ceremony.

''Friends don't fire ... at you,'' the general said brusquely.

Abdullah Jan, spokesman for the council of Nayazain tribe based in Khost, said the Americans may have been used to settle tribal scores, according to a report by the Afghan Islamic Press.

Jan said scores of people in Khost have satellite telephones, and may have given false information to the Americans in hopes of wiping out their adversaries, the news agency said.

Other Afghan officials said the confusion may have arisen because of a split in the predominant tribe in the region. Half the tribe had close ties with the Taliban, while the other was allied with the Taliban's enemies.

These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the anti- Taliban faction was heading toward Kabul on the backroads because their rivals had blocked the main route to the capital.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2001