Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghan, Coalition Officials Investigate Civilian Deaths

Aired July 02, 2002 - 06:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In another air tragedy, Afghan and coalition officials are trying to figure out why a U.S. warplane bombed an Afghan wedding party. For news of casualties and the investigation, we turn to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is at Bagram Air Base this morning in Afghanistan -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol. As you know, information has been very difficult to come by, hard figures on how many people have been injured or killed. What we do know now is that there are 22 people from that village who are now in Kandahar Hospital. At least one of them, we are told, is seriously injured.

Now, we are told that the people arrived at the hospital in Kandahar on Monday. Many of them had made the six to seven-hour drive to get to that hospital, and several of the people who were in the hospital report that three or four, maybe more of their family members were, in fact, killed in the bombing.

Now, from Kabul today, a U.S. -- a joint U.S. State Department coalition forces and Afghan ministry-level official delegation left for Kandahar to go to Uruzgan Province to find out more details of why this incident happened and how it happened. The Afghan Defense Ministry is saying they believe that a wedding underway in this province, people were firing in a celebratory way into the air. That caused the U.S. aircraft -- the coalition forces aircraft to bomb the wedding.

Now, coalition military briefers here say that a Special Forces operation was underway, that it was a multi-tasked operation, that they were operating in an area that they knew was hostile to them, that they had come under fire in that area before. And they say they can categorically rule out that what happened was a result of the celebratory fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. ROGER KING, U.S. ARMY: Normally, when you think of celebratory fire, which is something that's not necessarily uncommon, it's random, it's sprayed, it's not directed at a specific target. In this instance, the people on board the aircraft felt that the weapons were tracking them and were making a sustained effort to engage them.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTSON: Now, the coalition briefers say they were acting on intelligence that there were weapons, documents or even personnel in that village. They say they wouldn't characterize it as a Taliban-al Qaeda stronghold, but they say there was certainly belief that there was Taliban and al Qaeda sympathies there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic, there is a report this morning out of the "Afghan Islamic Press" that coalition forces were looking for Mohammed Omar, a Taliban leader. Have you heard that?

ROBERTSON: Well, the "Afghan Islamic Press" is perhaps not always the most reliable of news organizations. They have, in the past, been accurate with some of their publications. The "Afghan Islamic Press" made the same assertion last weekend about Saturday, Sunday -- eight or nine days ago. They said that there was a massive operation underway for the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Now, coalition briefers at that time dismissed that. They said that wasn't happening. In fact, during the last week, they told us that there has been no large operation underway in this area around Kandahar. However, the Uruzgan Province and some of those central Afghan provinces are places that people, both Afghans and coalition forces here, believe would be likely for Mullah Mohammed Omar to hide in, but not clear if this was an operation to try and detain him -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live for us from Afghanistan -- thank you for that report.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.