Nine children die in US air raid

The US military launched an investigation today after it admitted nine children had died in an American air raid in eastern Afghanistan.

An American A-10 aircraft struck a site south of Ghazni, 100 miles south west of the capital, Kabul, where a “known terrorist” was believed to be hiding, at about 10.30am yesterday, Army Major Christopher West told The Associated Press.

“At the time we initiated the attack, we did not know there were children nearby,” he said.

The target was a suspected militant believed to be responsible for the killing of two foreign contractors who were working on an Afghan road, West said. He did not identify the contractors and had no information about their deaths, but two Indian engineers were reported kidnapped while working on the road yesterday.

West said US troops collected “extensive intelligence over an extended period of time” and located the suspect targeted yesterday at an “isolated, rural site”.

“Following the attack, ground coalition forces searching the area found the bodies of both the intended target and those of nine children nearby,” he said today.

The military was sending a team of investigators to the site to determine if US forces were at fault, West said.

West said other houses were near the area attacked , but the aircraft did not strike them.

Coalition forces “will make every effort to assist the families of these innocent casualties and determine the cause of the civilian deaths,” he said from the US headquarters in Bagram.

“We regret the loss of any innocent life and we follow stringent rules of engagement to specifically avoid this type of incident while continuing to target terrorists who threaten the future of Afghanistan.”

The kidnapped engineers were working for an Indian contractor helping resurface part of the Kabul-Kandahar road, a reconstruction project mainly funded by the United States. The road was to be officially opened later this month.

Taliban attacks have plagued the flagship project. Four construction workers were killed at the end of August, and de-mining operations along the road were suspended last month after a carjacking.

A Turk was abducted along the road last month.

Two contractors working for the CIA also were killed in an October 25 ambush as they were tracking terrorists operating in the region of Shkin, about 100 miles south of Kabul.

Also yesterday, a bomb in Kandahar, the main southern stronghold of the Taliban, ripped through a bustling bazaar, wounding 20 Afghans. Taliban fighters claimed responsibility, saying the blast was aimed at American soldiers but went off late.

The bomb, apparently attached to a parked motorcycle or bicycle, exploded in front of a hotel at about 12.30pm in the city’s main commercial district. The wounded included three children, Afghan state TV reported.

US officials have been trying to track down remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida sympathisers in eastern and southern Afghanistan since ousting the hardline Islamic regime two years ago. The militants have stepped up attacks in recent months, targeting foreign aid workers and perceived allies of the US-led coalition.