As a formal US investigation into a
botched bombing that claimed civilian lives started, outraged villagers
claimed American soldiers stormed their homes and barred them from
treating wounded relatives.
"First they bombed the women folk, killing them like animals. Then they
stormed into the houses and tied the hands of men and women," said
Mohammad Anwar at Kakrakai village in central Uruzgan province. "It was
cruelty. After bombing the area, the US forces rushed to that house,
cordoned it off and refused to let the people help the victims."
Mr Anwar
pointed to the home of his brother Sharif, who was hosting a huge
pre-wedding party for his son on the night of June 30 when United States
aircraft strafed Kakrakai and surrounding villages.
Sharif, who accompanied Afghan President Hamid Karzai on his daring
mission into then Taleban-ruled central Afghanistan last October, was
killed. So were Mr Anwar's wife and Sharif's wife and four children. The
groom-to-be survived because he was confined in a separate house as local
wedding tradition decrees.
The US-led coalition commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill,
confirmed on Saturday that there were civilian casualties. Afghan
officials claim 48 people were killed.
Mr Anwar, a senior Karzai-appointed military commander in neighbouring
Kandahar province, said the toll would have been less if the troops
storming his brother's home had allowed relatives to tend to the victims.
"Until seven or eight o'clock in the morning the Americans did not
allow anyone to help the injured and to cover the bodies. Most of their
clothes had been burnt off. They kept filming and photographing the naked
women.
"The people are asking: is this the result of the support we have
extended to the Americans? This is humiliation. Our women were disgraced."
The US, in Afghanistan seeking remnants of the former hardline Taleban
regime and its al-Qaeda allies, has insisted coalition aircraft attacked
only after they were fired on.
Anti-American rage gripped the nearby villages of Shatoghai, Siasung
and Mazar, also hit in the US bombardment.
"One day God will give us the strength and we will fight them," said
Haji Wali, whose home in Shatoghai was attacked.
"Even during the Russian occupation [1979-1989] there was never such a
sustained bombing of the area. We are weak and they are oppressing us."
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