Afghans tout strike, but targets in dispute

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said Wednesday that the mastermind of a bloody attack on the agency’s base this week had been killed in an airstrike, but residents and officials in the area said the strike had in fact targeted hunters on a hilltop.

In a daring attack Monday, the Taliban used an armored Humvee it had seized from Afghan forces, packing it with explosives and driving it onto an Afghan intelligence base to detonate. At least 40 intelligence personnel were killed and 60 others were wounded.

The intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said in a statement Wednesday that its forces had traced the mastermind of that attack, a man they identified as Commander Noman. The agency said it had targeted him and seven others it described as terrorists with an airstrike Tuesday in Maydan Shahr, in the center of Wardak province.

“He was targeted in the provincial capital,” the statement added.

The agency did not say who had executed the strike, though Afghan forces often rely on the U.S. military to carry out airstrikes. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan said American forces had carried out a strike in Wardak province, without providing further details.

But the government’s claim was soon met with confusion and contradiction.

Sharifullah Hotak, a member of Wardak’s provincial council, said there had been a strike in the province Tuesday but that the casualties were all civilians and Commander Noman was not among them.

“Six civilians were killed and another was wounded in the drone airstrike,” Hotak said.

“These people were all civilians, and they were there for hunting,” said Akhtar Mohammad Khan Tahiri, the head of the provincial council. “The situation is worse in the province — both the Taliban and the government are killing civilians.”

A list of the dead provided by different officials in Wardak province included a teenager, Bashir Ahmadi, who was killed along with his father, Qasim.

“He was a simple man who wanted to bring food for his five children,” said Adil Ahmadi, a cousin of Qasim. “They were there to hunt rabbits because it is winter and there isn’t anything to do.”

Adil Ahmadi, who said he was in the valley below the mountain when the strike happened, climbed the mountain afterward and found the bodies “shattered.”

In addition to disagreement about who was killed, the accounts did not agree on the timing of the strike, though people in the region agreed that only one took place Tuesday. The Afghan intelligence agency said it was carried out at night, the U.S. military said its strike was in the early afternoon, and area officials said it happened before noon.