6 More Kids Killed In Afghanistan

Six children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault by U.S. forces on a compound filled with weapons in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday, the second time in a week that youngsters have died in action against Taliban and al Qaeda suspects.

The children died during a night attack Friday against a complex in eastern Paktia province where a renegade Afghan commander, Mullah Jalani, kept a huge cache of weapons, said U.S. Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty.

"The next day we discovered the bodies of two adults and six children," he said. "We had no indication there were noncombatants" in the compound.

Jalani was not at the site, 12 miles east of Gardez, but Hilferty said nine other people were arrested. He did not identify the adults who were killed or say whether they were combatants or civilians.

Hilferty said that U.S. warplanes and troops attacked the compound, setting off secondary explosions. The bodies were discovered the following day.

The news comes on the heels of a tragic U.S. military blunder in neighboring Ghazni province on Saturday. Nine children were found dead in a field after an attack by an A-10 ground attack aircraft that was targeting a Taliban suspect.

U.S. officials have apologized for those deaths. They originally claimed that the attack killed the intended target, a former Taliban district commander named Mullah Wazir suspected of recent attacks on road workers. But U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday they were no longer certain.

Villagers say the man killed was a local laborer who had just returned from Iran and that Mullah Wazir had left the area days before the attack.

Hilferty expressed regret over the death of civilians in Afghanistan, but said it was impossible to completely eliminate such incidents.

No U.S. casualties were reported in the operation near Gardez.

"Both occurred in a part of the country that is already hostile to the presence of American troops in Afghanistan and the U.S. can ill afford to lose the sympathy of the people in that area, reports CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan. "The United States officials here realize this. They acknowledge responsibility immediately and they're in the area following the attack, automatically talking to local leaders, talking to villagers, trying to make up for what's happened."

"We try very hard not to kill anyone. We would prefer to capture the terrorists rather than kill them," Hilferty said. "But in this incident, if noncombatants surround themselves with thousands of weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and howitzers and mortars in a compound known to be used by a terrorist we are not completely responsible for the consequences."

It was unclear if the wall was knocked down by troops searching for weapons or the secondary explosions. Hilferty said it was still too dangerous to search the whole site.

The Ghazni deaths produced outrage and concern, from Afghan villagers to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said he was "profoundly saddened" by the deaths and urged a full investigation. Afghan officials warned that such mistakes will undermine support for the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and tolerance of foreign troops.

"These mistakes are happening in areas which are predominantly Pashtun, which is the tribe which traditionally supported and created the Taliban, and these people are already unsympathetic to the presence of America," reports Logan.

The U.S. military, which on Dec. 2 launched what it describes as its biggest operation against militants since the fall of the Taliban two years ago, says it found hidden storage compartments containing hundreds of 107mm rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines and several howitzers at the compound.

The offensive, which involves about 2,000 troops across the south and east of the mountainous country, aims to knock Taliban insurgents off balance and keep them from attacking a historic constitutional council, the loya jirga, the American ambassador said Tuesday.

"We anticipate that they will try to be more active. To go after loya jirga-related activities and the loya jirga itself," Khalilzad said.

The loya jirga is considered a cornerstone event in Afghanistan's long path to recovery after U.S.-led forces ousted the hard-line Taliban regime two years ago. The delegates, who have begun filtering into Kabul from all around the country, must ratify a new constitution, paving the way for national elections scheduled for June.

Hilferty also said U.S. officials have "specific" intelligence the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies are planning an all-out campaign to wreck the grand council.

Under its new Operation Avalanche, involving about 2,000 troops across the south and east of the country, the U.S. military began an air assault in Khost province along the mountainous border with Pakistan.

Fewer than 100 troops took part, Hilferty said, far less than suggested Tuesday. He had no information on any combat or casualties.