The Associated Press
At his home in Tarin Kowt, in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, Bari Gul explains how his brother, Haji Sana Gul, an anti-Taliban commander, was killed by U.S. forces on Jan. 23.

U.S. probes role in slaughter at school

Twenty-seven prisoners taken in raid freed

ELLEN KNICKMEYER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KHAS URUZGAN, Afghan- istan -- Caked blood, charred bedding and flame-blackened walls serve as testimony to what Afghans say was a horrific mistake. Two weeks later, the Pentagon is investigating the deadly assault.

U.S. Special Forces burst into a small religious school here on Jan. 23, killing 19 people, most of them where they slept, Afghans who survived or witnessed the raid said. Two of the 19 -- both members of a government-appointed delegation -- were handcuffed and shot in the schoolyard, the Afghans claim.

The Pentagon first said the raid was an attack on an al-Qaida weapons dump, and that troops killed about 15 people and captured 27 Taliban and al-Qaida members. But the Afghans say the dead were not Taliban renegades at all, and instead included members of a government mission that had taken the weapons from Taliban holdouts.

Maj. Ralph Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, acknowledged Wednesday that none of the 27 captured in the raid was al-Qaida or Taliban, and all have been released. He said the United States is investigating whether any of those killed were also the wrong people.

Mills said U.S. forces were fired on during the raid, and one soldier was shot in the foot. He said the troops had strong intelligence information before moving in.

"Obviously, we had a reason to go into that area. We still stand firmly on that reason," he said.

Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said the United States had acknowledged it killed the wrong people in Khas Uruzgan. He told The Washington Post the killings were "a mistake of sorts," resulting from "an unfortunate movement of people at the wrong time."

Afghan witnesses say U.S. planes also bombed government offices near the school and killed two more people there for a total of 21 dead.

The dead at the school, where members of the government mission were spending the night, included two locally prominent Pashtun commanders who residents say were instrumental in ending Taliban rule here in Uruzgan province.

'We were sleeping'

"We were all sleeping. They didn't give us a chance to surrender," survivor Niaz Mohammed said. "They came to kill us."

The events of Jan. 23 remain in dispute, but it is clear that the Pentagon's initial account was incorrect or incomplete.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the Americans were fired on first. On Jan. 30, however, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that basic facts about the raid -- including who shot first -- had not been verified and that an inquiry had been ordered.

Rumsfeld told reporters Monday that U.S. troops had gone back to the area to investigate. He said that if innocent people died, the Americans should apologize on the spot.

After the raid on the school, resident Mir Hussain said he rushed to the school and found most of the dead still stretched out on their blood-soaked sleeping mats. One man lay dead at the door of Niaz Mohammed's room as if he'd tried to run out.

A week and a half later, pools of thickly coagulated blood and human tissue lying at regular intervals across the room appeared consistent with the men's accounts that the victims were shot where they'd been sleeping.

Hussain and others said in one room, they found the charred, bullet-riddled bodies of anti-Taliban commanders Haji Sana Gul and Qudus Khan. Their bodies were curled on their sleeping mats.

Hussain showed the thick bloodstain on the playground where he said he found another member of the government delegation, Shah Mohammed, who had been shot in the back with hands cuffed behind him. They showed one severed pair of plastic cuffs, of the kind used by Western law enforcement.

Bari Gul, whose brother was killed in the attack, suggested the Americans had been misinformed. It is for the Americans, he said, to explain the reason for the attack.

"You should ask the Americans," he said. "These were government forces? Why would they have done such a thing? People are angry."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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