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PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan. 13 - American planes crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region and fired on residential compounds in a Pakistani village early this morning, killing 18 people and wounding 6 others, Pakistani officials and eyewitnesses said.
Villagers and security officials said that four American aircraft
entered the Pakistani tribal region that borders Afghanistan's eastern
Kunar province at about 3.15 a.m. Pakistan Time. The planes targeted
residential buildings in the Berkandi area of Damadola, about 25 miles
from the border inside Pakistan, they said.
The mountainous province of Kunar is frequently the site of clashes
between United States-led coalition forces and armed militants who are
believed to use Pakistan as a sanctuary. In June last year, 19 American
servicemen were killed in Kunar in the heaviest single combat loss in
the four years of fighting in Afghanistan.
American military officials have said that their forces in Afghanistan
do not have the right to cross the border into Pakistan, even in
pursuit of militants. The issue is particularly sensitive for Pakistan,
since the inhabitants of the border areas are strongly anti-American
and pro-Taliban.
Witnesses from the village said that 14 of the dead belonged to one
family. Sahibzada Haroon Rashid, a tribal parliamentarian from the
region, whose village, Gung, is next to Damadola, claimed to have seen
a drone surveying the area some hours before the attack.
"The drone has been flying over the area for the last three, four days
and I had a feeling that something nasty was going to happen," Mr.
Rashid said in a telephone interview from Bajaur.
"I was awakened from deep slumber by the noise of the drone and then,
together with thousands others who, too, had been woken up by the
plane's noise, saw jets targeting the area," Mr. Rashid said. "One
plane circled the area and dropped illuminating flares and the other
planes fired missiles. There were loud explosions." He said that the
planes had targeted three houses, all belonging to jewelry dealers in a
nearby town.
"The houses have been razed to the ground. There is nothing left," Mr.
Rashid said after visiting the scene. "Pieces of the missiles are
scattered all around. The impact of the explosions have been huge,
everything has been blackened in a 100 meter radius." United States
military spokesmen in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon said they had no
reports of American aircraft active in the area at the time of the
reported explosions.
Asked if a pilotless Predator Drone was operating in the area, Maj.
Todd Vicion, a public affairs officer at the Pentagon, said he did not
know. "Those are operational details that we don't track," he said.
Predator Drones are operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, not
the United States military.
Among the dead are 6 women and 6 children under 10 years of age, villagers said.
A military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, said he did not know
the cause of the blasts. "People heard explosions and, as a result,
there were a number of casualties. My information is that 11 to 14
people have been killed."
This is the second alleged United States attack in a Pakistani tribal
region that has killed civilians in recent days. Eight people,
including women and children, were reported killed when an American
helicopter fired at the house of a local cleric in North Waziristan
close to the Afghan border on Jan. 7.
Pakistan lodged a strong protest with coalition forces on Jan. 9, but
said it was still investigating whether the two helicopters crossed the
border or fired missiles from Afghan territory. Assadullah Wafa, the
provincial governor of Kunar, which adjoins Pakistan's Bajaur region,
said that there had been no activity in the border area involving
Afghan military or police or American troops. He suggested the
explosion was an internal Pakistani affair. But Mr. Wafa said Taliban
and Al Qaeda militants were using Pakistan as a base for their
operations.
"We don't have any problems with the people of Bajaur," the governor
said, "but everyone knows that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are staying in
Pakistan."
Villagers in Damadola said some of the bodies were badly mutilated and
could not be identified. They were all buried in a mass grave.
Officials and residents in Damadola said there were no reports of any
foreign militants being killed or being present in the three houses at
the time of the attack.
"There are no foreign militants here. It is a peaceful area," Mr Rashid
said. "It is a big question mark: why were innocent men, women and
children killed?"
MOHAMMAD KHAN
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