Oceana jets likely involved in Afghanistan strikes

From staff and wire reports

Four days after dozens of civilians were killed in two villages in western Afghanistan hit by U.S. airstrikes, American officials suggest that Taliban militants may have caused some of the deaths.

The airstrikes were carried out Monday by an Air Force B1-B Lancer and Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets, according to U.S. Air Forces Central Command. A military spokesman could not confirm that the Super Hornets were based at Virginia Beach's Oceana Naval Air Station, but the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Eisenhower, with which Oceana's Carrier Air Wing Seven is embarked, is the only carrier operating in the region.

Afghan officials say the bombs killed civilians who were hiding in their homes. But a U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that intelligence indicates that the Taliban killed "a large number" of women and children in villages nearby and moved the bodies to the site of the airstrikes. Forensic evidence is expected to show that the civilians were killed by grenades, not bombs, the official said.

Other U.S. defense officials, also speaking anonymously, said it is possible the investigators will find a mix of causes for the deaths - that some were caused by the firefight between the Americans and the Taliban, some by the U.S. airstrike, and some deliberately by Taliban fighters hoping U.S. bombings would be blamed.

Taliban militants often take over civilian homes and launch attacks on Afghan and coalition forces. U.S. officials say the militants hope to attract U.S. airstrikes that kill civilians, thereby giving the militants a propaganda victory.

Sobbing relatives showed U.S. and Afghan investigators the demolished buildings and graves in the villages of Ganjabad and Gerani, where a local official said he collected the names of 147 people killed.

If reports of the death toll are confirmed, it would be the deadliest case of civilian casualties in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime. There has been no official death count, either from the Americans or the Afghans. Results of the joint U.S.-Afghan investigation are expected to be announced today.

The large number of civilian deaths comes at an awkward time for the Obama administration as it steps up its military campaign while emphasizing the importance of nonmilitary efforts to stabilize the country. In a White House meeting Wednesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Barack Obama expressed great sympathy over the loss of life.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whose two-day visit in Afghanistan was overshadowed by the case, offered a new expression of U.S. regret for the deaths but stopped short of taking blame. U.S. officials maintained that the Taliban might have been responsible for at least some of the deaths.

Abdul Basir Khan, an Afghan official who said he helped the joint delegation from Kabul with their examination Thursday, said he collected names of 147 dead - 55 at one site and 92 at another. Khan said he gave his tally to the Kabul team.

He said villagers told investigators that many of the dead were buried in mass graves of 20 or so people. Investigators did not exhume the bodies, according to Khan.

Crying family members angrily showed investigators bombed-out buildings and lines of graves.

"They were pointing to graves and saying, 'This is my son, this is my daughter,' " Khan said.

The Red Cross has said that women and children were among dozens of dead people its teams saw in two villages, where houses lay in ruin after the bombing.

Karzai has long pleaded with the U.S. to minimize civilian deaths during its operations, contending that such killings undermine support for the fight against the Taliban.

In the capital of Farah province, where the fighting took place, anger spilled over into the streets Thursday.

Some 150 stone-throwing protesters chanted, "Death to America," clashed with police and tried to storm a government building.

Police fired at the demonstrators and pushed them back, said Belqiz Rosha, a provincial council member.

One protester was wounded by a bullet and five more suffered other injuries, said Gul Ahmad Ayubi, a provincial health department official.

The high civilian death toll threatens Karzai's standing with the public ahead of elections in August.

Many of those preparing to challenge Karzai have criticized his administration as too weak or too beholden to foreign powers.

The Associated Press and Pilot writers Lauren King, Matthew Jones and Meredith Kruse contributed to this report.