A tribal leader in eastern Afghanistan threatened today to launch a war against new Afghan leader Mr Hamid Karzai if US jets launched another attack on his area, Afghan Islamic Press reported.
The warning from Gulab Din, head of the Zadran tribe in Paktia province, came as the US government struggled to shake off accusations that its jets had attacked a convoy taking tribal elders and other local officials to Mr Karzai's inauguration in Kabul yesterday.
According to AIP, 65 people were killed in the attack on the convoy near the town of Khost on Thursday. Senior US officials have insisted al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were in the convoy.
Mr Din said the US attacks killed only civilians. According to the Pakistan-based AIP, the tribal leader warned: "If the US launches similar tyrannical attacks again, we will launch an armed struggle against Hamid Karzai's government."
He accused the head of the Khost administration, Bacha Khan, of supplying the wrong information to US forces and causing the attack on the convoy.
The tribal leader said there were no Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters in the convoy.
General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, insisted yesterday that US warplanes were fired on before attacking the convoy.
"Friendly forces don't fire surface-to-air missiles at you," Gen Franks said in Kabul just before the inauguration of the interim government.
"We believe it was a bad convoy. We have reason to believe it was a good target. Right now we have people on the ground investigating but we are convinced it was a good target."
AFP