27 civilians killed, Afghans say; in Kabul, bomb kills 7

Officials said fighter aircraft targeting militants accidentally killed up to 27 Afghans walking to a wedding ceremony in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the second military attack in three days with reports of civilian deaths.

Early this morning, a bomb exploded close to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry on a busy street in the capital. Officials said seven people were killed by the blast and ambulances were seen ferrying the wounded from the scene.

Afghan officials based their account of Sunday’s military attack from speaking with villagers by telephone and could not immediately reach the remote area. The U.S. military said it did not believe anyone other than combatants had been killed.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had already ordered an investigation into earlier allegations that missiles from U.S. helicopters struck civilians Friday in eastern Afghanistan. In a statement, Karzai cited allegations that 15 civilians were killed and seven wounded in Friday’s attack.

In Sunday’s incident, Nuristan police chief spokesman Ghafor Khan said that aircraft attacked militants near the village of Kacu, but that one of the missiles hit the wedding party.