Nic Robertson: Seeking answers in Afghan raid

CNN's Nic Robertson

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan and U.S.-led coalition officials are investigating a U.S. attack on a central Afghan village that killed dozens of people at a wedding party.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that gunfire from an AC-130 gunship rather than an errant bomb may have caused the civilian deaths Monday.

CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson discussed the probe Tuesday with CNN anchor Carol Costello.

ROBERTSON: 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.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Nic Robertson reports on the conflicting details emerging from a U.S. attack in Afghanistan that killed celebrants at a wedding. (July 2) Play video    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

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 killed in the bombing.

Now, from Kabul [on Tuesday], a U.S. -- a joint U.S. State Department-coalition forces and Afghan ministry-level official delegation left for Kandahar to go to the 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 was under way in this province [and] 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 under way, that it was a multitasked 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.

U.S. COL. ROGER KING (in video clip): 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.

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.

COSTELLO: Nic, there is a report [Tuesday] 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 -- eight or nine days ago. They said that there was a massive operation under way for the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

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 under way 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 [it's] not clear if this was an operation to try and detain him.