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Identification of those killed in missile attack possible: US
US soldiers investigating the site of a missile attack in eastern Afghanistan collected enough human remains to identify who was killed, a senior US army investigator said.
US soldiers investigating the site of a missile attack in eastern Afghanistan collected enough human remains to identify who was killed, a senior US army investigator said.
US army chief warrant officer Paul Pierce could not say, however, whether investigators had DNA samples of known individuals to match with evidence found at the site.
We're not talking about a truckload of stuff, but it was more than an envelope, said Pierce, head of the investigators probing the February 4 attack near Zhawar Kili.
US officials say evidence collected so far shows that the attack was directed against suspected senior Al Qaeda leaders, but Afghanistan's deputy border affairs minister Mirza Ali and local residents said the victims were civilians gathering scrap metal from exploded ordnance to sell for cash.
Investigators are trying to determine who was killed at the site amid speculation it could have been Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, alleged mastermind of the September 11 suicide attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States.
Officials said the CIA-launched missile strike at the former Al Qaeda stronghold appeared to have hit its target --a tall man who was being treated with great deference by those around him.
A two-man team under Pierce's command was at the site near Khost along with about 50 soldiers from the US army's 101st airborne division and Special Forces troops.
The evidence they found, including weapons, documents in Arabic and military equipment, was being shipped to the United States for analysis, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
Bureau Report
We're not talking about a truckload of stuff, but it was more than an envelope, said Pierce, head of the investigators probing the February 4 attack near Zhawar Kili.
US officials say evidence collected so far shows that the attack was directed against suspected senior Al Qaeda leaders, but Afghanistan's deputy border affairs minister Mirza Ali and local residents said the victims were civilians gathering scrap metal from exploded ordnance to sell for cash.
Investigators are trying to determine who was killed at the site amid speculation it could have been Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, alleged mastermind of the September 11 suicide attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States.
Officials said the CIA-launched missile strike at the former Al Qaeda stronghold appeared to have hit its target --a tall man who was being treated with great deference by those around him.
A two-man team under Pierce's command was at the site near Khost along with about 50 soldiers from the US army's 101st airborne division and Special Forces troops.
The evidence they found, including weapons, documents in Arabic and military equipment, was being shipped to the United States for analysis, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
Bureau Report