- (ABC News) -- There will be no compensation for the
families of the 11 Afghan civilians killed on Wednesday when a US bomb
went astray and hit their home, a US military spokesman said.
-
- "It has been the policy in the past of the US that
there are no compensation or reparations for losses due to combat,"
Lieutenant Colonel Roger King said at Bagram airbase, 50 kilometres north
of Kabul.
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- The seven women and four men were killed when their house
was hit early on Wednesday by a stray 450-kilogram laser-guided bomb in
a raid against a group of unknown attackers in the mountains of Paktika
in south-east Afghanistan.
-
- It was the worst mistake by US-led coalition forces in
Afghanistan since 48 people were killed last June when US forces mistakenly
bombed a wedding party in central Uruzgan province, killing 48 people.
-
- Lt King said the accident was being investigated but
could not give a time frame for how long the inquiry would take.
-
- "It was a tragic accident by all appearances. We've
got systems in place to try to find out what happened," he said.
-
- "We'll conduct an investigation to try to find out
why this building was hit, and we never intentionally target civilians."
-
- The investigation would be carried out by air command
and control elements, mostly air force officers, he said.
-
- Rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for
an investigation into the deaths.
-
- "The safety of civilians must be made a priority
and urgent measures taken to avoid the repetition of such tragedies,"
it said in a statement.
-
- "US forces must take sufficient precautions to protect
civilians in selecting military objectives and means of attack," it
said.
-
- "Civilian casualties cannot be allowed - neither
in Afghanistan nor in Iraq - to become an acceptable feature of war."
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- US Marine Corps AV-8 Harriers had been called in to offer
air support after an Afghan military force checkpoint came under attack
near Shkin fire base, Paktika province just before midnight local time.
-
- A GPU-16 450-kilogram laser guided bomb was targeted
at a group of attackers in the mountains but went astray, hitting the house,
the US military said.
-
- US-led coalition forces are currently hunting down Al
Qaeda and Taliban remnants, mostly in the south and east of the war-ravaged
country.
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