Following is a list of non-military installations allegedly bombed, apparently in error, by U.S. forces since they launched attacks on Afghanistan on Oct. 7.
Bombings that hit wrong targets in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Following is a list of non-military installations allegedly bombed, apparently in error, by U.S. forces since they launched attacks on Afghanistan on Oct. 7.
Some incidents have been confirmed, while no independent confirmation was available for others. The U.S.-led forces say they are targeting Taliban military installations and camps and facilities of Saudi born militant Osama bin Laden.
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OCTOBER 22
HERAT - The Taliban said United States bombed a 100-bed hospital in the western city of Herat, killing more than 100. The United Nations said Tuesday it had learned that a military hospital in a military compound had been destroyed in Herat on Monday but it had no information on casualties. A U.S. defense official said in Washington that U.S. forces might have accidentally hit a home for the elderly in Herat Monday.
OCTOBER 17
KANDAHAR - Taliban Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat said a U.S. bomb hit a truck packed with Afghans trying to flee air raids on the town of Chunai near the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
He said all those in the truck had been killed but gave no casualty figure. No independent verification was possible.
OCTOBER 16
KABUL - U.S. bombs hit warehouses operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, destroying tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other aid supplies intended for internally displaced Afghans.
ICRC said it was clearly a civilian facility, marked with a large red cross on the roof. An ICRC Afghan employee was injured.
The Pentagon said a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet jet dropped 1,000-pound bombs that inadvertently hit one or more ICRC warehouses. U.S. forces had targeted a series of warehouses believed to be used by the Taliban to store military equipment, the Pentagon statement said.
"Military vehicles had been seen in the vicinity of these warehouses. U.S. forces did not know that the ICRC was using one or more of the warehouses," the statement said.
OCTOBER 13
KABUL - A U.S. Navy F/A-18 attack aircraft missed a Taliban military target at Kabul airport and its 2,000-pound "smart" bomb blasted civilian houses a mile from the Afghan capital, the Pentagon said.
A U.S. defense official said the satellite-guided bomb had missed because of human error, in that incorrect coordinates had been entered into a targeting system.
The Pentagon cited reports of as many as four dead and eight injured. A Reuters reporter said at least one man was killed and four injured.
OCTOBER 11
JALALABAD - The Taliban say U.S. bombs flattened Khorum village, near the eastern city of Jalalabad. Villagers said at least 160 people were killed in the pre-dawn bombing.
International journalists invited to visit the village saw evidence of widespread devastation and more than a dozen fresh graves but it was impossible to confirm the death toll or what had caused the damage.
Rumsfeld did not deny the area had been targeted, but described the alleged death toll as "ridiculous" and said the remote mountainous area was riddled with tunnels containing munitions.
OCTOBER 9
KABUL - A U.S. bomb struck a U.N.-funded demining office in Kabul, killing four people and slightly wounding one. The attack destroyed the four-story building.
"People need to distinguish between combatants and those innocent civilians who do not bear arms," U.N. Afghanistan coordinator for humanitarian aid Mike Sackett said after the incident.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed regret for the deaths of the four Afghans, but said he did not know if they had been killed by U.S. weapons and added that some civilian casualties were inevitable.
14:14 10-23-01