U.S. Airstrike on 2 Taliban Commanders in South Wounds at Least 18 Civilians, Afghans Say

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and TAIMOOR SHAH

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 3 — The United States military said Friday that it had carried out an airstrike on two Taliban commanders during “a sizable meeting” of insurgents in a remote region of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, but that it could not be sure the men had been killed.

Local officials said that at least 18 Afghans were wounded in the attack.

A large number of the Taliban had gathered for a public execution near a shrine in the Baghran district and that members of the public were also present at the time of the bombing, 4 p.m. on Thursday, they said.

“The people say there were many people there,” the provincial police chief, Muhammad Hussain Andiwal, said in a telephone interview. “The Taliban were also in great numbers; some 16 to 17 vehicles belonging to the Taliban were present at the scene. There must be heavy casualties to the Taliban.”

“We have information from the wounded people who were brought to Bost Hospital in Lashkar Gah that the Taliban brought two men accused of spying and they were going to execute them publicly, and they forced the people to come and watch them,” the police chief said. “I don’t know the exact number of civilian casualties.”

The doctor on duty at the hospital in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, said at least 18 wounded civilians were being treated there, including an 8-year old boy.

The United States military released a statement from Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, saying that it had information that two “notorious” Taliban commanders were at the gathering, and that it had monitored their movements in the village of Qaleh Chah, in the Baghran district.

“During a sizable meeting of senior Taliban commanders, coalition forces employed precision-guided munitions on their location after ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area,” the statement said.

“This operation shows that there is no safe haven for the insurgents,” said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for United States forces in Afghanistan. “It will take some time to determine if both targets were killed.”

The planes bombed a shrine known as Ibrahim Shah Baba, in the Baghran district, the police chief said. Baghran, one of the most remote and mountainous parts of Helmand, is a known Taliban stronghold where United States and NATO ground troops have not ventured recently. The area is so lawless that even local journalists cannot travel to the area to conduct independent reporting.

A tribal elder from the region, Hajji Zahir, speaking from Lashkar Gah, said that he had contacted people in the region and been told that hundreds were present at the Taliban execution of the men, who were charged with spying or working for the government. Taliban fighters and civilians were among the dead and wounded, he said.

“We have received 18 people, all wounded severely,” Dr. Rahmatullah, the duty officer at the provincial hospital in Lashkar Gah, said by telephone. “They are all men, there is only one 8-year-boy among them.

“One of the men, who had a serious trauma, died at the hospital,” he said.

The wounded had talked of very high casualties and said they had been near a shrine when the bombing occurred, the doctor said.

Carlotta Gall contributed from Islamabad, Pakistan.