US Chopper Raid Kills 3 Afghans, Angry Locals Say

Three Afghan civilians were killed and two wounded in a pre-dawn swoop by U.S. helicopter gunships in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost on Friday, angry villagers said.

The attack in Tani village to the south of Khost town came after a patrol of U.S. soldiers was fired at, Khost's Mayor, Jalil Ahmad Hasani, told Reuters. U.S. patrols often call in close air support when they come under fire.

"The report we have indicates that three civilians, including two women, have been killed in the aerial bombardment and several others wounded," he said.

Villagers at the scene said no U.S. patrol had been fired on, adding that Afghans had wrongly identified the house to the Americans as a hideout for al Qaeda or Taliban.

"The Americans acted on wrong information and bombed our village," said Ayoub, whose father was in hospital for wounds inflicted during the air strike.

"We had a family feud and I think the Americans have taken the other side's word for it that Taliban and al Qaeda people were hiding here."

Residents confirmed that three people, including two women, were killed when their house came under fire from four helicopter gunships, and two people were wounded in the same neighborhood.

Comment: Just yesterday there was another American attack where more than 40 Iraqi civilians had died, many of them were women and children, celebrating at a wedding party though the U.S. military disputes that account, and now another attack in Afghanistan where 3 civilians got killed, including 2 women.

In many occasions, in Afghanistan and most likely in Iraq too, due to long term animosity among various tribes, "family feud", false intelligence are provided to the Americans by the opposing groups and military take little verification process before using deadly force.

All these killings would only infuriate the resistance both in Iraq and Afghanistan.