HIGHLIGHTS: US Planes Mistake Firing at Wedding for an Attack||An Australian Patrol Party Fired upon in Eastern Afghanistan||British and Australian Troops Launch Condor, a New Search & Destroy Operation in South Eastern Afghanistan||STORY: At least 10 people were killed and several wounded when U.S. warplanes bombed a village in eastern Afghanistan, a Pakistan-based Afghan news agency reported on Friday. The private Afghan Islamic Press said the U.S. planes pounded the village of Bul Khil of Sabari district in Khost province for several hours overnight after crew flying U.S. helicopters in the area mistook traditional firing at a wedding for an attack. (Photo caption)

Sabari is about 19 miles northeast of Khost, capital of the province of the same name.

Khost was a stronghold of the ousted Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Its airport is being used as a base for some U.S.-led forces hunting remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

A U.S. army spokesman in Afghanistan, Major Bryan Hilferty, said an AC-130 gunship was deployed after an Australian patrol party was fired upon, but he declined to specify where.

"An AC-130 was sent in, it fired at an uninhabited ridge line," Hilferty said at Bagram Air Base, the Afghan headquarters of the U.S.-led military coalition.

He said he had no information if there had been any casualties on the ground.

"Do I know if they were al Qaeda, I don't know. But I have a right to self-defense if I am attacked," Hilferty said.

A 1,000-strong coalition force, comprising mainly British Royal Marines, has since joined the Australian special forces in hunting elements of the al Qaeda and Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan in a new operation dubbed Condor.

The operation was launched in the mountains of Paktia province, which is adjacent to Khost province, Brigadier Roger Lane, commander of the British Royal Marines said.

AIP said residents had recovered 10 bodies from two different places.

"The planes are still flying and the panicked villagers cannot retrieve the (other) dead bodies and wounded people," AIP quoted informed sources as saying.

PHOTO CAPTION

American soldiers from the 101st Airborne return from Kandahar to their tents at Bagram air base May 17, 2002. U.S. gunships and helicopters gave air cover to a new British-led operation against al Qaeda and the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)