U.S. bombs Afghanistan, unaware of civilian deaths

Kabul - The U.S. military said Thursday its planes had carried out more raids against suspected militant hideouts in Afghanistan but was unaware of any civilian casualties. A spokesman of the government of Helmand province said on Wednesday at least 17 civilians, mainly women and children, had died in coalition bombing since Sunday.

U.S. army spokesman Colonel Roger King told reporters at U.S. headquarters in Bagram, north of Kabul, that he was unaware of any civilian deaths.

"Battle damage assessment conducted in support of operation Eagle Fury has not indicated any non-combatant casualties to date," he said.

He said a U.S. B-52 aircraft dropped a 2,000-pound "smart bomb" at caves in northern Helmand's Baghran valley on Wednesday night and an AC 130 gunship fired ten 105 mm cannon rounds.

According to the U.S.-led coalition, the operation began on Monday after U.S. Special forces traveling through the remote valley came under heavy fire from suspected members of the ousted Taliban regime.

Helmand province spokesman Haji Mohammad Wali told Reuters a district official in Baghran had reported the civilian deaths after relatives came to the district headquarters.

A villager also told Reuters he had seen the bodies of two women, two children and a man in a riverbed in the area.

However, King said the bombing was targeted at an area overlooking the Baghran valley from where U.S. forces had been fired upon.

"Aircraft have directed at targets that were firing at U.S. forces," he said.

U.S. military officials have said they believe the fighters in Helmand are linked to the Taliban.

The province, like neighboring Kandahar, was a stronghold of the fundamentalist movement and officials say there is still a measure of support for its hard-line interpretation of Islam.

In recent weeks there has been an increase in attacks in southern Afghanistan by groups believed to be linked to the Taliban and a renegade warlord.

About 13,000 U.S.-led coalition troops are in Afghanistan hunting remnants of the Taliban and the al Qaeda network blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. -- Reuters

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