Eyewitness: a day in Kandahar

Doctors said ten patients died when a clinic was struck

The BBC's Simon Ingram is among a group of 25 journalists who have been allowed into Taleban-controlled Afghanistan. Taken to the city of Kandahar to view the damage, he expresses scepticism about Taleban claims over loss of life.

We have been taken around the city to view for ourselves the damage which has been caused during the 25 days of the American military campaign.

This morning we were shown one totally flattened building. It had been a clinic.

We also saw a row of shops, demolished ten days ago, and a petrol tanker which had blown up on the road after being hit by a missile.

All of this is evidence, as the Taleban would have it, of the very severe damage that the onslaught is causing.

It is certainly true that there has been severe collateral damage, and yes, lives have been lost.

But one gets the impression that a certain amount of embellishment has been going on.

A ring of untruth

The Taleban ambassador to Pakistan says 1,500 people have been killed during the raids.

There is no doubt that there has been severe damage

It is very hard to assess the ambassador's claim, or other claims made to us journalists here on the ground by Taleban officials.

The clinic, for example.

We heard the bomb strike in the early hours of the morning.

When we went to see it this morning we saw that the building had been flattened, blown apart by what could only have been a very powerful bomb.

But while there was very strong evidence of physical damage, when doctors came forward to say that ten patients had been killed and some 25 others injured, there were a number of us who felt rather sceptical.

We were not taken to see any casualties.

It simply had a ring of untruth about it, or at least exaggeration.

And this is turning out to be the pattern that we are finding as we are taken to these places around the city.

The problem is that it is unnecessary, and likely to have been counter-productive.

The scenes of destruction would have told enough of a story on their own.

As it stands now, we feel a bit led up the garden path.