US air attack kills nine children in Afghanistan

CHILDREN’S hats and shoes littered a bloody field cratered by gunfire yesterday after a US airstrike, aimed at a wanted Taliban commander, mistakenly killed nine children in an Afghan mountain village.

The American warplane was targeting Mullah Wazir, once a local commander for the hard-line Islamic militia. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and a US military official said Wazir was killed in the attack, but residents and local officials said Wazir escaped or was not in the village at all.

The residents reported at least one adult man, possibly a Wazir relative, was killed along with the children.