ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - As wounded from a convoy of guests to the inauguration of Afghanistan's rulers recounted an attack by U.S. bombers, a tribal elder warned new leader Hamid Karzai of an uprising if such incidents recurred.
``The bombing was so intense that only the lucky ones could escape,'' Haji Yaqub Khan Tanaiwal, 65, a mujahideen commander told Reuters from his bed in Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
``Every vehicle was hit in the first raid,'' Tanaiwal recalled.
He was one of only 40 survivors in the convoy of about 20 to 25 vehicles carrying 100 people that was bombed by U.S. jets late on Thursday in what might have been a mistake.
Local Afghans also contested U.S. assertions its planes had attacked a convoy of al Qaeda leaders near Khost in eastern Afghanistan, telling Reuters at the scene on Saturday that the dozens of dead were innocent villagers and tribal elders.
Local Pashtun tribal chieftain Gulabdin said Karzai would face an armed uprising if there were more U.S. attacks on Khost, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said