No word on Hekmatyar link to Afghan village attack

Kabul: Afghan authorities have no information on whether a wanted guerrilla leader was in a village hit by a US-led air strike in the east of the country earlier in the week, a spokesman said yesterday.

The authorities are investigating the air attack on what the Afghan and US militaries said were heavily armed insurgents in the province of Nuristan. A provincial official said more than 20 civilians were killed in the bombing.

Asked about a report that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a fugitive pro-Taliban insurgent leader wanted by the United States, was the target of the attack, a presidential spokesman said the guerrilla leader's whereabouts was unknown.

"We have no precise information whether Hekmatyar was there or not ... we are not aware as to where Hekmatyar is," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a regular briefing.

The air strike was part of an operation involving Afghan and US-led troops against suspected militants in the rugged region near the Pakistani border where Hekmatyar's followers are active. Nuristan's governor was cited as saying Hekmatyar was believed to have been at a meeting in the village.

Security analysts said it was doubtful Hekmatyar would have been in the area. Hekmatyar was a prominent commander during the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s and factional warring in the 1990s.

Hamidzada said the Defence Ministry was investigating the reports of civilian casualties and the government would announce the result. Civilian casualties are a highly sensitive issue for the government and foreign troops based in the country since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. Analysts say civilian casualties can strengthen support for the Taliban in the countryside.