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Karzai Says Controversial U.N. Report on U.S. Airstrike Was Flawed
Friday, August 2, 2002
By Paisley Dodds
Associated Press Writer

U.S. military officials had insisted that U.S.-led teams on the ground saw anti-aircraft fire directed at U.S. planes before the attack. However, they said no trace of any anti-aircraft guns could be found when American forces inspected the area soon after the raid.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- AP
President Hamid Karzai today said a U.N. report allegedly accusing U.S. forces of removing evidence from the scene of an airstrike where civilians died was inaccurate.

"The U.N. report was not correct," Karzai told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai. "Lots of people had much misinformation. The second report, the official report, will be much more accurate."

Karzai refused to identify the purported inaccuracies in the U.N. report on the July 1 airstrike on Kakarak and nearby villages in Uruzgan province. Afghans say 48 civilians were killed and 117 wounded when a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship, armed with cannons and howitzer artillery, pounded the villages with devastating fire.

Karzai, escorted by his U.S. special forces bodyguards, also declined to talk in detail about the report's conclusions.

Initial Findings Leaked
The United Nations handed over its preliminary report on the airstrike to Afghan and U.S. authorities last week but refused to release it to the public.

However, The Times of London reported Monday that the initial draft concluded that American forces may have removed evidence after the attack and violated human rights. U.S. officials denied the allegations.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed that the initial findings had been leaked.

Afghans said the dead included 25 members of an extended family attending a wedding celebration. U.S. officials acknowledge that civilians died but have refused to accept the Afghan casualty figures pending completion of their own investigation.

* Karzai Meets With Relatives of Victims
* Grenade Attack
(More: ABCNEWS Online News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan