Angry Afghans Say U.S. Kills Civilians, U.S. Denies It

But the U.S. military challenged residents' version of events, saying it killed three suspected Islamic militants in "tactical raids" and detained 23 others. Four U.S. soldiers were wounded in the firefight, but none seriously.

Khost's mayor, Jalil Ahmad Hasani, told Reuters that the air attack took place in the village of Tani, located some 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Kabul.

"The report we have indicates that three civilians, including two women, have been killed in the aerial bombardment and several others wounded," he said.

Villagers at the scene said no U.S. patrol had been fired on, adding that Afghans had wrongly identified the house to the Americans as a hideout for al Qaeda or Taliban.

"The Americans acted on wrong information and bombed our village," said Ayoub, whose father was wounded. "We had a family feud and I think the Americans have taken the other side's word for it that Taliban and al Qaeda people were hiding here."

Residents confirmed that three people, including two women, were killed when their house came under fire from four helicopter gunships, and two people were wounded in the same neighborhood.

They said U.S. forces arrested 14 locals on suspicion of siding with the ousted Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.

Residents cleared away the rubble caused by the bombing; a two-storey mud house was riddled with shell marks.

CIVILIANS OR MILITANTS?

They would be the first reported civilian deaths in a U.S. air attack since January, when 11 Afghans, including four children, were killed in a U.S. air raid on the village of Sawghataq, in the central province of Uruzgan.

In one of the most controversial incidents, 48 people died and 117 were wounded when U.S. planes attacked a wedding party in the town of Deh Rawud, also in Uruzgan, in July 2002. The U.S. military said a gunship had come under fire.
Afghans complain that the U.S. military has acted on false intelligence and been caught up in local rivalries.

But the U.S. military in Kabul denied any civilians had been killed.

"Coalition forces conducted tactical raids last night in the Khost Province in order to rid the area of suspected anti-coalition militia," it said in a statement.

"The raids resulted in 23 detainees and three enemy killed in action. The three deaths occurred after the ACMs (anti-coalition militia) fired on and wounded four U.S. soldiers.

In Iraq, the American military has been criticized for attacking a wedding party on Wednesday near the Syrian border, killing dozens of guests. It maintains foreign fighters died in the raid.

While popular resistance to occupying forces in Iraq is fiercer than in Afghanistan, the U.S. military in Kabul will be keen to avoid any new scandals.

It is already facing unprecedented scrutiny of its secretive network of detention centers after allegations of prisoner abuse and has launched a review of practices and conditions at the 20 or so jails.

About 20,000 U.S.-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting militants from the ousted Taliban and the al Qaeda network it once sheltered. Over 700 people have been killed in a wave of violence in Afghanistan since August, most blamed on the Taliban. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin and Mike Collett-White in KABUL)

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