Wedding attack witnesses questioned

Afghan villagers say a U.S. bomb created this hole in a roof

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. officials believe a large group of guests at a wedding party in Afghanistan were standing near an anti-aircraft artillery site when a U.S. AC-130 gunship struck it from the air, killing dozens of civilians.

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition investigators were continuing their inquiries on Thursday at the southern Afghanistan village of Deh Rawud.

Eyewitnesses put the death toll from Monday's strike at between 120 and 130. But the Afghan Foreign Ministry believes about 40 people died. Twenty-two people are in hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

U.S. defense officials said at least 20 people died in the attack and more than 60 were wounded. The U.S. military has not publicly disputed the Afghan government estimate of 40 deaths. "We just don't know," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

She warned against accepting any casualty figures until investigators fully assessed the incident.

Investigators are interviewing Afghan and coalition forces and villagers, said Clarke. Military officials say findings may not be released until Friday.

One official told CNN that the U.S. believes it is a "strong possibility" that the people killed and injured were members of a wedding party as previously stated by local villagers. One theory under investigation is that the dead and wounded were near an anti-aircraft battery.

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U.S. forces were conducting an operation against anti-aircraft artillery near the village and there have been no reports of a building or other facility being inadvertently struck in the area.

The strike occurred in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, in an area known to be "of enormous sympathy for the Taliban and al Qaeda," said Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We had people on the ground [for the past several weeks in the area and they've been] engaged on the ground and in the air by local forces," he added.

Newbold said a coalition reconnaissance group had found a cache that included "15 tons of munitions ... including anti-aircraft weapons" about 10 miles from the scene

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah said Tuesday that U.S.-led coalition forces bombed four neighboring villages north of Kandahar. However, U.S. officials in Washington said initial indications were that gunfire from an AC-130 gunship caused most of the casualties.

Monday's action, aimed at unoccupied caves, "was intended to denude the area" to prevent "Taliban individuals" from manning fighting emplacements outside, Newbold said. The gunship, using high accuracy munitions, fired on a total of six anti-aircraft artillery sites.

None of the munitions from that aircraft missed or hit unintended targets, sources said.

"It is not unusual for the al Qaeda or the Taliban to place weapons and ammunition ... in areas where people, civilians are living," Clarke said.

Afghan officials said they would continue to press the coalition to change tactics to protect Afghan civilians from casualties.

A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Roger King, said between 100 and 200 Special Forces were in a coordinated operation Monday in Uruzgan province, near the town of Tarin Kowt, and called in air support from B-52 bombers and AC-130s when they were fired upon.

A boy is treated at a Kandahar hospital

Survivors said that members of a wedding party were firing weapons into the air in celebration at the time of the accident. But King ruled out celebratory fire in provoking the attack.

"Normally when you think of celebratory fire ... it's random, it's sprayed, it's not directed at a specific target," he said. "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."

Officials could not describe what the AC-130 crew may have been able to see during the operation. Sources said the crew had no way to determine if the people were civilians or enemy forces, and it is not clear if they were able to see any children.

The White House issued a statement Tuesday, saying President Bush "extends his deep condolences for the loss of innocent life" in Afghanistan. (Full story)

--CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr contributed to this report