An American bombing that killed up to 90 Afghan civilians last month was based on false information provided by a rival tribe and did not kill a single Taliban fighter, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said yesterday. The claim contradicted a U.S. contention that the Aug. 22 raid on the western village of Azizabad killed up to 35 Taliban fighters.

“There was total misinformation fed to the coalition forces,” presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told The Associated Press.  Afghan police have since arrested three suspects accused of giving the U.S. military false intelligence that led to the bombardment, the Interior Ministry has said.

An Afghan government commission found that up to 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children. That finding has been backed up by a preliminary UN report.

“Not a single Talib was killed,” Hamidzada said. “So it was a total disaster, and it made it even worse when there were denials, total denials.”

The U.S. at first said that 30 insurgents and no civilians were killed. A formal U.S. military investigation found that the operation killed up to 35 rebels and seven civilians.

But after video images surfaced last week showing at least 10 dead children and up to 40 other dead villagers, the U.S. said it would send a general to investigate the incident further.

Source: The Ottawa Sun