U.S. Missile Kills Four in Afghan Demining Office
KABUL, Afghanistan, Tuesday, October 09, 2001 (Reuters)

“We were asleep and it was early morning when the building was hit. Four of my colleagues have been killed and I have a head wound,” said Mujaoor, a security guard at the Afghan Technical Consultancy.

Local residents said they believed a cruise missile had plowed into the offices of the Afghan Technical Consultancy (ATC), which runs demining operations in one of the world's most heavily mined countries.

“The U.N. coordinator for Afghanistan appeals to the international community to protect innocent civilians from military attacks,” U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker told a news conference quoting U.N.

Afghanistan coordinator Mike Sackett. “People need to distinguish between combatants and those innocent civilians who do not bear arms,” she said quoting his statement. There had been no word from Washington on how or why the ATC attack occurred, she said, adding that three other people had also been treated for slight wounds after the attack.

“You see that has collapsed in the bombardment?” ATC official Dr. Shah Wali, who was visibly upset, told Reuters. “This is a civilian area and they have killed four of the guards of this building.”

ATC officials dug through the rubble to recover the last two bodies still buried in the concrete building on a main road to the east of the city. It had taken them three hours to complete the grisly job of digging out the remains of the other two men.

The four — in their 20s and 30s — were killed during U.S. raids on Monday night. “We are linked to a demining agency and our goal and objective is to clear and free Afghanistan from the menace of mines,” Wali said. “They have missed their target,” he said of the U.S. raid.

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