US bomb kills 10 civilians in opposition-held Afghanistan: medic
A stray US bomb killed at least 10 people when it hit a northern Afghan village in territory controlled by anti-Taliban forces, a medical source said.
An ambulance driver who went to the village, which is three kilometres (two miles) from the Taliban frontlines northeast of Kabul, said 10 civilians were killed instantly by the bomb and at least another six injured.
A foreign ministry official from the opposition Northern Alliance confirmed a US bomb hit the village of Khan Agaha at the mouth of the Kapisa valley at 4.30 pm (1200 GMT) in territory it controlled.
The misguided strike occurred during the heaviest day of US bombing on the ruling Taliban regime's frontlines north of the Afghan capital.
In morning and afternoon raids Saturday, US warplanes dropped up to 35 bombs at the mouth of the Kapisa valley, 80 kilometres northeast of Kabul, and near Bagram airbase, about 40 kilometres north of the capital.
A source at a hospital in the nearby Panjshir valley, which is run by the Italian relief agency Emergency, said up to 16 people may have been killed in Saturday's attack on Khan Agaha.
However an official spokeswoman for the hospital refused to confirm or deny the toll and said a press conference would be given at 11:30 am Sunday.
Emergency's hospital is two hours drive north of Khan Agaha and is where many of the opposition's war wounded are taken.
The misguided strike adds to the steadily growing list of tragic US bombing blunders during the 21-day military offensive against the Taliban.
In one of the worst previous independently reported incidents, the United Nations said nine civilians were killed on Monday when US warplanes dropped cluster bombs on a village in the Taliban-controlled western Afghan city of Herat.