Bombing tragedy prompts inquiry call

Scores are believed to have died in the attack

A bombing tragedy in Afghanistan which is believed to have killed scores of wedding guests should be the subject of an inquiry, a Labour MP has said.

The attack by a US bomber and a gunship is also believed to left many injured, with officials in Kabul saying the death toll was at least 30.

There needs to be a full international inquiry and an end to this way of conducting war

Alice Mahon

US sources say the B-52 bomber and helicopter gunship launched the attack when their forces came under fire.

The Pentagon is sending a fact-finding group to investigate but Halifax MP Alice Mahon wants a full international inquiry.

Local officials in the Uruzgan province, where the tragedy took place, have suggested that revellers at the wedding were firing weapons into the air in celebration.

'Tragedy'

The practice is common in rural areas of Afghanistan.

Labour's Ms Mahon said it was now time to stop the bombing after the "terrible tragedy".

"The Americans have to realise that when they operate this kind of war, this will inevitably happen," she said.

"Their intelligence before has been absolutely wrong."

Ms Mahon called for an international inquiry

Ms Mahon went on to add: "There needs to be a full international inquiry and an end to this way of conducting war."

Fellow Labour MP Alan Simpson said: "If you insist on having a view of a country that is so crude and airborne, then you are going to end up with this sort of catastrophic misjudgement happening again and again."

He said the tragedy was a result of "abjectly poor military planning, and a presumption that this sort of state doesn't really matter anyway.

Unilaterism

"What we have to be saying is that if there is a military role in relation to Afghanistan, it has to be a multilateral one, and must carry the support of the Afghan administration.

"This is where American unilateralism is increasingly going to take us."

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman David Laws said it remained vital to continue with military action against al-Qaeda but that had to go alongside making sure of good relations with both "peacekeeping forces and the general population".

"For this reason it is vital that military targets should be carefully chosen and based on reliable information," he said.