Sunday October 28 4:49 AM ET

U.S. Bombers Kill Kabul Family

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. bomb crashed through a flimsy mud-brick home in the Kabul Sunday blowing apart seven children as they ate breakfast with their father, the mother said.

U.S. bombers killed a total of 12 civilians in two early morning raids on the Afghan capital.

A civilian was also killed when U.S. planes mistakenly bombed a village north of the city in territory controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance Saturday, residents said.

Al-Jazeera television of Qatar had earlier reported that 10 civilians were killed by a stray U.S. bomb in the same area.

"What shall I do now? Look at their savageness,'' wailed the wife of Gul Ahmad as the bodies of her children were pulled from the smoldering wreckage of her home and wrapped in shrouds.

"They killed all of my children and husband,'' she said.

"The whole world is responsible for this tragedy. Why are they not taking any decision to stop this?'' she asked.

The killing of yet more civilians is likely to increase calls from Islamic groups and aid agencies for a halt to the bombing.

Sobs racked the body of a middle-aged man as he cradled the head of his baby, its dust-covered body dressed only in a blue diaper, lying beside the bodies of three other children, their colorful clothes layered with debris from their shattered homes.

The attacks were launched three weeks ago against Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s ruling Taliban in retaliation for sheltering Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the United States that killed some 5,000.

BOMBS HIT BUS, OPPOSITION VILLAGE

The blast that killed the family also destroyed their neighbor's house, killing two children there, witnesses said.

The house was in a residential area called Qalaye Khatir near a hill where the hardline Taliban militia had placed an anti-aircraft gun.

Men digging graves for the children were angry.

"Your filming makes no difference. No body runs it. Just get lost,'' one said to a Reuters reporter.

Two other civilians died when a bomb hit the minibus in which they were attempting to flee Kabul with their family.

A Reuters reporter said one woman was killed and 10 people injured when warplanes mistakenly bombed the tiny hamlet of Ghanikhel Saturday.

About 100 locals gathered in the cemetery for the funeral of Kukugul, who died when her house was struck by a huge blast between 4 and 5 p.m.

The United States and its allies have been attacking frontline Taliban positions north of Kabul for a week, dropping powerful explosives from high in the sky to avoid the Taliban's meager air defenses.

"There has only been one explosion on opposition territory,'' Haji Kahar, an opposition foreign ministry spokesman based in Jabal-us-Saraj, told Reuters:

"One woman was killed and around eight people were injured in the town of Ghanikhel.''

The Taliban say hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed by stray U.S. bombs or missiles. U.S. officials call the figure exaggerated.

U.S. warplanes have been pounding the Taliban frontline positions near Kabul to help the Northern Alliance opposition forces.

They alliance is battling many foreign fighters -- including Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens -- who are among the fiercest and most determined soldiers in the Taliban militia.

The Taliban controls some 90 percent of Afghanistan and its lightly armed soldiers have not collapsed under the three-week-old U.S. air onslaught.

Washington's political campaign to replace the Taliban with a broad coalition of Afghans took a blow when the Taliban captured and executed opposition commander Abdul Haq, who had been trying to persuade Pashtun tribal leaders to switch allegiance.

Haq is expected to be buried Sunday in Afghanistan. His family had hoped the Taliban would release the body for burial in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar.

DEATH FOR CHRISTIANS

The bombing of civilians is particularly embarrassing for Muslim countries supporting the United States.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, under fire at home from Islamic opponents for dropping support for the Taliban, has said the bombing must be as short and targeted as possible.

In Muslim Pakistan, where Musharraf's stand has drawn some opposition, masked gunmen killed up to 15 Christians and a policeman guarding their church in central Pakistan Sunday.

Christians had expressed fears they could become targets if unrest broke out over the U.S. bombing of neighboring Afghanistan.

In a show of support for the isolated Taliban, about 4,500 Pakistani tribesmen are expected to resume their march on Sunday toward the Afghan border. They say they want to help the Taliban.

Buses, wagons, pick-up trucks and vehicles with Muslim activists carrying Kalashnikov rifles and rocket launchers set out for Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province Saturday.

The group was led by firebrand Islamic party head Sufi Mohammad, who has called for jihad, or a holy struggle, against the United States.

A Pakistani security official said the men had camped for the night 12 km (seven miles) from the border.