http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/09/international/asia/09AFGH.html

Afghan Ally of U.S. Sees Pilot Error in Attack

By Carlotta Gall

ANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 8

America's main ally in southern Afghanistan, the governor of Kandahar, said today that he thought the American-led attack that killed and injured scores of villagers in Oruzgan Province last week would prove to have been caused by an error of the pilot of the AC-130 gunship involved.

The official, Gul Agha Shirzai, who is responsible for security across six provinces in southern Afghanistan, said that the attack — aimed at senior Taliban members reported to be hiding in the area — had in any case probably been based on faulty intelligence.

Mr. Shirzai said he had called together the leaders of all six provinces in his jurisdiction to improve intelligence with a comprehensive plan for tracking Taliban movements and planning operations in the area.

The death toll in the July 1 attack on the village of Kakrak and several surrounding villages has now risen to 54, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said here, quoting local authorities. One person is missing and more than 120 people were wounded, he said.

Most of the dead were women and children, who were killed when an American plane bombarded an engagement party in Kakrak. United States military officials have said that the plane was reacting to antiaircraft fire aimed from several different locations.

At the Pentagon today, officials said a formal investigation would begin within 48 hours. The 12- to 15-member team, which is to have more official responsibilities than a preliminary fact-finding inquiry conducted last week, will be directed by an Air Force general and will include experts in combat air control and operations of AC-130 gunships, officials said.

"The team will take as long as they need to tour the sites, interview villagers, pilots, forward air controllers and Special Forces, and to do as thorough as possible a job on the investigation," said Victoria Clarke, the Defense Department spokeswoman.

In an interview in his office, Mr. Shirzai said his "personal opinion" about the incident was that "there was some tracer fire, so that the pilot assumed or claimed that there was some antiaircraft activity."

He added: "This is not the first time. Canadian troops were killed by an aircraft not long ago."

Last month, a military investigation found that an American F-16 pilot dropped a 500-pound bomb on Canadian soldiers conducting a nighttime live-fire exercise near Kandahar in April because he did not take time to assess the threat properly before striking. Four Canadian soldiers died and eight were wounded.

Survivors of the attack last week said people at two engagement parties, one in Kakrak and one in the village of Siya Sang, had fired Kalashnikov rifles into the air in an act of celebration that is typical in Afghanistan. They denied that an antiaircraft gun or any other heavy weapon had been used or that the planes had been targets of the celebratory gunfire.

An aide said that before the incident, Mr. Shirzai and intelligence officials had contributed some 200 Afghan soldiers to the American-led operation under way in Oruzgan, which was intended to cordon off and search several villages suspected of harboring senior Taliban officials. An AC-130 gunship was present to provide air support.

But although a Pentagon official said today that the mission had been based on evidence of "high-value individuals" in the area, authorities in Kandahar expressed the suspicion that the United States had operated on flawed intelligence. Word that a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Bradar, and even the top leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, were in the village may have been supplied by someone who wanted the village to be attacked, they said.

Some have pointed the finger at the intelligence chief of Kandahar, Hajji Gulallai, who was present during the operation in Kakrak, or his supporters. Mr. Gulallai declined to be interviewed today.

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