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Afghan Villagers Say 200 Killed By Chris Tomlinson Associated Press Writer Saturday, December 1, 2001; 8:12 PM JALALABAD, Afghanistan –– Coalition bombing raids in eastern Afghanistan struck three villages and killed scores of civilians, witnesses and anti-Taliban commanders said Saturday. The U.S. military said it has no evidence any of its airstrikes hit civilians.Witnesses and survivors at a nearby hospital said between 100 and 200 villagers were killed Saturday when warplanes dropped more than 25 bombs in four passes over the village of Kama Ado, 30 miles south of Jalalabad.Witnesses and provincial officials also reported bombing in the nearby village of Agom, saying at least five people had died there. And Hazrat Ali, the security chief for Nangarhar province where the bombing occurred, said at least 50 people were killed Friday night when bombs fell on Khan-e-Muirajuddin, another village 15 miles southwest of Jalalabad.Another provincial official, defense chief Mohammed Zeman, said local anti-Taliban authorities had complained to the Americans that they were bombing in the wrong place.Marine Corps Maj. Brad Lowell, a spokesman from U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said Saturday that the military has no evidence any of its airstrikes in the area hit civilians. Lowell said officials reviewed gun camera and surveillance footage going back to Thursday and found nothing resembling what the Afghans described."All of our rounds are accounted for, and the images show the caves and tunnel systems and the rounds hitting those targets," Lowell said.Referring to an initial report of one village bombed, Lowell had earlier said: "It just did not happen."Lalgul, a 33-year-old farmer who claimed he witnessed the attack on Kama Ado from a neighboring village and helped rescue four survivors, said all 30 mud brick and wooden homes in the mountain village were flattened. Other witnesses gave the same account. Like many Afghans, Lalgul uses one name.Lalgul said that on his way to the hospital, he passed through Agom, he was told five people died and more than 25 were injured. Others from the area gave higher estimates. Zeman and Ali said bombs did fall on Agom, but they could not confirm the death toll.Ali said the death toll in the Khan-e-Muirajuddin bombing could rise."Fifty people were confirmed dead, it's possible that 100 or 200 were killed," he said. "We are very sad about the bombing of civilians, but it is the fault of our own people, because they are giving false reports that there are al-Qaida camps there." Ali refused to elaborate.Pentagon officials have said they are bombing in the mountains south of Jalalabad because they believe more than 600 non-Afghan Taliban fighters and members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network are hiding in mountain caves.Kama Ado is located in the foothills of the White Mountains, where the hide-outs are reportedly located. The area is nominally under the control of the anti-Taliban Eastern Shura, led by former guerrillas in the war against Soviet occupiers in the 1980s.Zeman said he fully supports U.S. airstrikes in the mountains, but that U.S. planes were hitting the wrong places."We talked to the authorities in the United States ... and we told them, 'Your bombing is not to the mark. There are civilians there. Stop bombing that area,'" Zeman said.Lalgul brought one of the survivors to Jalalabad Public Health Hospital. The 10-year-old boy, Iqhaluddin, suffered lung damage and broken ribs. Doctors said he was expected to recover fully."After the bombs stopped falling, we heard the voices of children and people and we were very frightened. We didn't know what to do at first, then we decided to save them," Lalgul said. "Out of a family of 40, only this boy and his grandmother survived." © 2001 The Associated Press ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
