KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. warplanes bombed a village in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight people and destroying the camp of a Danish relief group after assailants rocketed a nearby government office, Afghan officials and the international aid group said Tuesday.

The American military said the air strike late Monday in Kunar province was launched to counter an attack on U.S. troops and killed several militants. The military accused rebels of injuring 10 civilians, but did not rule out harm being done to villagers by American fire.

The Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees, or DACAAR, said at least one of its aid workers was injured in the bombing

The exchange began late Monday when assailants fired 25 rockets at the mayor's office in Mano Gai, 105 miles east of Kabul, said Sayed Fazel Akbar, the governor of Kunar province. Police responded with small arms fire, he said.

"Then the American planes came and bombarded Weradesh village," from where the rockets were launched into nearby Mano Gai, he said. "There are casualties there, but we don't know how many or if they are civilians or the enemy."

DACAAR, which had a team working in Weradesh, said at least two bombs were dropped around midnight and that eight villagers had been killed.

The group's 14 staff fled their darkened camp on the edge of the village seconds before it was struck by one bomb, said Gorm Pederson, the group's director. One worker was injured and several of the group's vehicles were badly damaged.

"Our people decided to take shelter," Pederson said. "It was while they were running from the camp to the village that they were hit."

U.S. soldiers visited the village early Tuesday and told DACAAR's staff to draw up an assessment of the damage, Pederson said. They offered no explanation for the air strikes.

Pederson said the group, one of the country's largest relief organizations, would abandon its water supply project in the area until it had reassessed security.

The U.S. military said American-led forces in the area came under fire with mortars and rockets, sparking a gun battle in which "insurgents fired indiscriminately at villagers."

U.S. planes and troops "suppressed the insurgents' fire," the military said in a statement. "Estimates are several anti-coalition militants were killed."

Seven children, one coalition soldier and two Afghan soldiers were flown to the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, it said. Four required surgery.

"An insurgent blew himself up with a grenade, injuring the children," it said. One child was in guarded condition and the rest of the injured were stable, it said.

Akbar declined to elaborate on who might have launched the rocket attack on Mano Gai. But the area is considered a stronghold of militants loyal to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

"They are like thieves," Akbar said. "They come and fight for five minutes and then escape."

U.S. forces mantain a small camp just a few miles away at Nangalam which has come under repeated attack.

© 2004 Copyright Associated Press

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