American Special Forces troops and Afghan commandos killed two influential tribal leaders and a number of their followers in western Afghanistan in a joint airborne operation Wednesday night amid more accusations about civilian casualties, military officials said Thursday.
NATO and the Afghan Ministry of Defense declared that the tribal leaders were high-priority Taliban targets and that the operation against them was successful. There was no evidence of civilian casualties, a statement from the NATO press office in Kabul said.
But villagers gave a different account, saying houses had been bombed and civilians had been killed and wounded as they fled. Local officials confirmed the bombardment and damage to houses but did not mention deaths.
The operation took place in the Zerkoh Valley near Shindand in Herat, a western province where U.S. Special Forces clashed with the same tribe in April 2007. In that incident, when the U.S. forces came under fire from villagers, the Americans called in airstrikes on the village, causing 57 deaths, including women and children.
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President Hamid Karzai flew by helicopter on Thursday to commiserate with residents in a mountain village in eastern Nangarhar province where 47 people, mostly women and children, accompanying a bride to a neighboring village were killed in an aerial bombardment July 6.
The U.S. military said it had killed militants, but a government delegation visited the area and confirmed the dead were women and children.