US blamed for second Afghan raid

Al Jazeera, July 7, 2008

Afghan medics carry a boy out of a van after allegedly suffering injuries in Sunday's attack [AFP] Members of an Afghan wedding party have been killed in a second air strike over three days, local officials say. Witnesses said at least 20 civilians, travelling to the wedding in Nangarhar on Sunday, were killed. Women and children were among the dead and injured. The US said the air assault was targeting fighters. It comes a day after at least 15 people were killed and seven injured in an air raid in Nuristan. Captain Christian Patterson, the coalition media officer, said: "It was not a wedding party, there were no women or children present. We have no reports of civilian casualties." The US-led force said in a statement earlier that "several" fighters had been killed. One witness, Lal Wazir, whose tunic was covered in blood after carrying some of those wounded to hospital, said the attack came at about 6.30am (0200 GMT). "The wedding participants were on their way to the groom's house," Wazir said outside the hospital. "They stopped in a narrow location for rest. The plane came and bombed the area. There were between 80 to 90 people altogether. "We have carried six of the injured to this hospital, and more might be coming. The exact number of casualties is not clear," he said. A male survivor who escaped without injury, told Al Jazeera: "We saw the plane overhead and we heard the sound of the bombing. "I asked one person to see what happened and he came back with an injured child. Then we went there ourselves and there were dead bodies everywhere." James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, said the incident would cause deep concern for Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, as it was the second time in two days that residents had reported civilian deaths at the hands of the US military. "This latest attack claimed the lives of between 20 and 30 people. The Americans claim they were militants, but in the local hospital there are women and children." Continued . . .