- GARDEZ, Afghanistan (AP)
- They heard the plane overhead. The first bomb demolished one of the convoy's
cars. Haji Hazrat Khan slammed on his brakes, jumped out and ran into the
rugged foothills for his life.
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- The U.S. airstrikes killed 12 in the convoy and 15 in
nearby mountain villages, Khan and other witnesses said Friday, a week
after an attack that drew protests that a mistake had occurred.
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- The United States says the convoy included al-Qaida and
Taliban leadership, and that the convoy fired missiles at the planes.
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- But Khan claimed it contained only tribal elders heading
toward the Afghan capital to congratulate the new interim administration
that was sworn in the following day.
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- Khan and others say that the attack highlights the difficulties
of identifying Taliban, particularly in Afghanistan's Pashtun regions.
There also appears to be some indications that tribal rivalries may have
played a role.
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- Tribesmen in the convoy, some of whom acknowledge being
formerly allied with the Taliban, said their allegiance was to the new
interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, like most people
in the south and east of Afghanistan, where Gardez is located.
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- In Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, tribesmen
joined the Taliban ranks, they say, not to support terrorism or al-Qaida
but because the hard-line movement brought security and adhered to their
code of behavior.
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- Many abandoned the Taliban after the movement's supreme
leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the
United States.
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- Those in the convoy claim they had spoken to both the
U.S. Embassy and the United Nations in Islamabad, Pakistan, to give their
coordinates, explain their destination and identify themselves to avoid
being a target.
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- The claims could not be immediately confirmed late Friday
because offices in Pakistan were closed.
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- In the days after the attack, U.S. military officials
insisted that an air strikes killed Taliban leaders, saying 10 to 12 vehicles
were hit, as well as a compound with command facilities where the convoy
originated.
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- U.S. Central Command, spokesman Maj. Brad Lowell said
people in the convoy returned fire on the American plane, shooting two
shoulder-fired surface-to-air weapons.
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- Lowell said officials doubled checked details of the
incident with forces already on the ground in the area, using photos taken
after the strike and through other intelligence means, and concluded as
it had before that the casualties were Taliban.
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- Khan and others blame rival tribesmen for feeding false
information to the Americans.
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- In the convoy there were former Taliban commanders, like
Naeem Koochi who today says he is an ally of Karzai. He also alleges tribal
enemies ordered the strikes.
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- He said their convoy was heading from Gardez to Kabul
when it was stopped by heavily armed men loyal to Bacha Khan Zardran, a
rival tribesman. They refused to let the convoy travel the main road to
Kabul.
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- "Among us we had 10 Kalashnikovs (rifles) and they
had rocket launchers, heavy weapons and Kalashnikovs. We decided we couldn't
fight," he said.
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- Instead, the convoy headed toward Kabul on a narrow mountain
road.
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- Koochi accused Zardran, who is also aligned to the new
Afghan administration, of calling in the airstrikes. Fearing such a prospect,
he said they took precautions before leaving the main road.
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- One tribesman, Daoud Shah Niazai, said he contacted an
Afghan working at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, while Mullah Asadullah
Khosti called the United Nations in Islamabad to tell them of the convoy's
travel plans.
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- The convoy reached the top of a snow-clogged mountain
pass and had to turn around. When it reached the main road, the airstrikes
began.
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- "I ran. I didn't care where. I just went into the
mountains," Khan said.
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