US denies Afghan bombing blunder

The wounded were taken to Kandahar hospital

The US military has denied reports that its planes bombed a wedding party in Afghanistan after mistaking celebratory gunfire for an anti-aircraft attack.

At least 30 people at the wedding were killed when the village of Dehrawad in the central province of Uruzgan was bombed.

A US military spokesman in Afghanistan, Colonel Roger King, said American aircrews in the area believed the firing was not random but was tracking their course and making a sustained effort to engage them.

He said: "I don't know what was going on in this village, except there were people shooting at coalition forces with heavy calibre machine guns."

US and Afghan officials are on their way to Dehrawad, 400 kilometres (250 miles) south-west of Kabul, to investigate what happened.

The Pentagon said other villages had also been hit during a two-day campaign against fighters of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the former Taleban regime.

Afghan anger

Afghan officials continue to insist that guests at the wedding were targeted after firing their guns into the air in jubilation, which is customary at Pashtun celebrations.

A survivor said victims had to wait many hours before help arrived

Many of the victims were taken to the nearest surgical hospital, several hours' drive away over rugged terrain in Kandahar.

Medical staff there said they had treated shrapnel wounds and other injuries.

Afghans have reacted angrily to the news of civilian casualties.

Abdul Wadood, a resident of Kabul, said: "It's our tradition to shoot guns a weddings - it doesn't mean we're al-Qaeda".

Newspaper kiosk worker Hafizullah said: "We're very upset at what has happened.

"America must not do it again, killing innocent people in the name of the war against al-Qaeda."

Hunt for al-Qaeda

The US has been bombing Afghanistan to try to eliminate remaining Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters.

But US forces have made a number of errors during the nine-month campaign.

Four Canadian soldiers were killed in April when a US fighter bombed them by mistake during a training exercise

In January, US bombs killed civilians in the village of Hazar Qadam, targeted as a Taleban compound

Last December, planes bombed a convoy from the eastern town of Khost, killing people Mr Karzai said were tribal elders travelling to his inauguration as interim leader

Last October, a targeting error led to a bomb hitting a residential area of Kabul.