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February 23, 2002
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan authorities are pursuing their own investigation of a U.S. Special Forces raid in which pro-government Afghans were killed.
Yusuf Pashtun, a spokesman for the government of Kandahar province, said Friday that Afghans had yet to be informed of the results of the official U.S. investigation. He said a separate investigation ordered by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai is being overseen by Jan Mohammed, the Uruzgan governor.
"Our investigation is still going on," he said.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Americans had done nothing wrong in the Jan. 23 attack in the village of Khas Uruzgan.
Rumsfeld said investigators have determined that none of those killed or captured were Taliban or al-Qaida members. However, he defended the killings, saying Americans had been fired upon at one of the sites.
"It is no mistake at all if you're fired on to fire back," he said.
As to Rumsfeld's statement, Pashtun said, "We still believe there was a possibility of a mistake."
Afghans say 21 Afghan men were killed in the raid, which the United States initially said was against Taliban and al-Qaida units. Later, the Defense Department acknowledged that progovernment Afghans had been killed and captured.
Nineteen Afghans were killed where they slept at a school. Some where found handcuffed, the Afghans said. Two others were killed when U.S. planes bombed government offices in the town, Afghan survivors, witnesses and authorities said.
Uruzgan province Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan and other local and regional Afghan authorities say the 19 killed at the school were on a mission he had ordered to retrieve surrendered Taliban weapons.
After initial outrage, Uruzgan and Kandahar provincial authorities have been speaking in increasingly mild terms about the incident. The Americans have been working closely with Afghan leaders in securing order.
Jan Mohammed said earlier this month he had delivered $1,000 to $2,000 to each dead man's family, as well as a verbal apology relayed on behalf of high-ranking U.S. officials he declined to identify.
Afghans at Khas Uruzgan say no American investigators have spoken to them, although Khas Uruzgan district chief Abdul Qudus Irfani said earlier this month he believed some who represented themselves as journalists visiting the site may actually have been U.S. agents.