KABUL, 20 January 2004 — Eleven civilians, four children and three women among them, have been killed in US bombing in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, its governor said yesterday.
The air raid on the village of Sawghataq village in the district of Charcheno took place on Sunday morning, Governor Jan Mohammad Khan said. “Altogether 11 people have lost their lives in the American bombing,” Khan said from the area by satellite telephone. “Four of them were children and three of them were women.”
He had no further details and it was not immediately clear whether the bombing was carried out by helicopter or fighter plane.
Abdur Rahman, district chief of Charcheno, said the attack was carried out on the tiny village perched on a small hill. “Of course, all those who got killed were civilians. We do not know why the Americans carried out this raid,” he said.
Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the US military in Kabul, said he had information of five deaths. Earlier in the day, he said three American soldiers were wounded at their base on Sunday morning when around 15 attackers fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Uruzgan.
