US Bombing of Convoy Kills 65, incl Tribal Leaders Loyal to New Govt Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Looks like "nothing happened" to the USA's new friends....] U.S. Bombing on Afghan Convoy Said to Kill 65 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed a convoy of Afghan tribal elders going to Kabul to attend the swearing in of an interim government, killing 65 people after locals misinformed the Pentagon, provincial leaders said on Friday. But a top Pentagon official said the convoy, destroyed by U.S. military AC-130 gunships and Navy jet fighters, was believed to be carrying leaders of the Taliban or Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, being hunted by Washington. Local residents said supporters of the incoming leader, Hamid Karzai, came under attack after they left a tribal meeting en route for Kabul and informers apparently told U.S. contacts they were pro-Taliban. Two local leaders, quoted by the BBC and the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), said the bombing on Thursday night and into Friday morning struck the convoy as it traveled from the eastern border town of Khost to the Paktia provincial capital, Gardez. The 65 dead included tribal elders and former mujahideen commanders going to Kabul to attend Saturday's inauguration, the privately owned AIP said. Fourteen vehicles in the convoy were destroyed by the bombing near Sato Kandau, 15 miles south of Gardez, AIP said, quoting a member of the ruling provincial shura, or council, Sayed Yaqeen. The BBC quoted another shura member, Haji Saifullah, as saying the convoy was bombed after it had diverted to a bypass from the main Khost-Gardez road. Some locals told the Americans the travelers were members of bin Laden's al Qaeda. Saifullah said the convoy turned into the bypass because some local people prevented it from traveling on the main road. Another local witness quoted by the BBC said he was due to travel in the convoy but left after 50 to 60 people opposed to incoming leader Karzai stopped it taking the main road. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the bombed convoy consisted of about 10 to 12 vehicles, which were destroyed. ``The vehicles were destroyed, the people were killed and the compound from which they left was destroyed,'' Pace told reporters at a Pentagon briefing, adding the attack occurred in the last 24 hours. Pace said the compound contained ``leadership'' but did not make clear if they were leaders of the collapsed Taliban movement or al Qaeda. ``The intelligence we gathered at the time indicated to us that this was in fact leadership and we struck the leadership,'' Pace said. AIP said bodies of five people killed in the bombing had been brought to Khost by Friday evening. It quoted its sources in the area as saying that one of the dead was ``Commander'' Mohammad Ibrahim, a brother of former mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. Haqqani had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s but became the tribal affairs minister in the Taliban government, swept from power last month after punitive U.S.-led bombing for sheltering bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and his followers. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-12.22.01-05:02:06-8251