Six
children killed in U.S. assault
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Six children
were crushed to death by a collapsing wall
during an assault by U.S. forces on a compound
filled with weapons in eastern Afghanistan,
a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday,
the second time in a week that youngsters
have died in action against Taliban and
al-Qaida suspects.
The
children died during a night attack Friday
against a complex in eastern Paktia province
where a renegade Afghan commander, Mullah
Jalani, kept a huge cache of weapons, said
U.S. Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty.
''The next day we discovered the bodies
of two adults and six children,'' he said.
Jalani
was not at the site, 12 miles east of Gardez,
but Hilferty said nine other people were
arrested. He did not identify the adults
who were killed or say whether they were
combatants or civilians.
Hilferty
said that U.S. warplanes and troops attacked
the compound, setting off secondary explosions.
The bodies were discovered the following
day.
The
news comes on the heels of a tragic U.S.
military blunder in neighboring Ghazni province
on Saturday. Nine children were found dead
in a field after an attack by an A-10 ground
attack aircraft that was targeting a Taliban
suspect.
U.S.
officials have apologized for those deaths.
They originally claimed that the attack
killed the intended target, a former Taliban
district commander named Mullah Wazir suspected
of recent attacks on road workers. But U.S.
ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday
they were no longer certain.
Villagers
say the man killed was a local laborer who
had just returned from Iran and that Mullah
Wazir had left the area days before the
attack.
Hilferty
expressed regret over the death of civilians
in Afghanistan, but said it was impossible
to completely eliminate such incidents.
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