US ‘regrets’ killing civilians in air strike

THE US military admitted killing civilians in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan last week and a provincial governor said 17 villagers including women and children had died.

The civilians were killed when US planes pounded a suspected militant hideout in rebel-infested Kunar province late Friday amid the search for a small team of US special forces soldiers, the governor said.

One team member was rescued Saturday but three remain unaccounted for, the television network CNN said. The US squad has been missing since June 28 when rebels downed a helicopter sent to extract them, killing all 16 on board.

“Coalition forces deeply regret the loss of innocent lives and are investigating the incident to prevent future occurrences,” a US military statement said, without specifying the number of civilian deaths.

“Seventeen civilians died in the US bombing” of Chichal village in Kunar, provincial governor Assadullah Wafa told AFP.

American-led forces have mistakenly killed scores of Afghan civilians since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, including 48 who died when a wedding party came under attack three years ago.

The US statement said American forces struck a “terrorist compound in Kunar province with precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of enemy terrorists and non-combatants.

“The targeted compound was a known operating base for terrorist attacks in Kunar province as well as a base for a medium-level terrorist leader. Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing,” the statement said.

It said that US forces followed strict rules to avoid civilian deaths but added that “when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk.”