KABUL, 1 September 2004 — Eight Afghan villagers were killed and an Afghan aid worker injured when planes of the US-led coalition bombed a northeastern village after a firefight with militants late Monday, a Danish aid group said yesterday. Our staff said “there were eight dead villagers,” Gorm Pedersen, director of the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees, told AFP.
Pedersen said the eight villagers at Waradesh in Pech district in Kunar province were killed in the US bombardment, which was ordered after fighting between Afghan government forces and militants in the district. “There was no fighting in the village,” he said. Danish staff operating a water pipeline project said their supply compound was also bombed and an aid worker injured.
The US military in a statement confirmed there was an airstrike in Kunar late Monday. “Coalition attack aircraft and coalition ground personnel suppressed the insurgents’ fire and attack during last night’s firefight.”
In an earlier statement, the US military said seven children, two Afghan soldiers and one US soldier were wounded in the fighting late Monday between militants and US and Afghan forces in Pech district.
Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday moved a powerful northern warlord from a key military post and gave him a government job in a bid to curb the power of regional militias before landmark presidential polls.
Gen. Mohammad Daud, a key Mujahedeen fighter who served as commander of 7th Corps in northeastern Kunduz province, has been appointed as deputy interior minister, Rafiullah Mujadidi, one of Karzai’s spokesmen, told AFP.
