Uruzgan wedding bombing

On 1 July 2002 in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, the United States Air Force carried out an airstrike on a gathering of terrorist falsely to be a wedding party in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Background

Starting in the Spring of 2002 coalition intelligence assets had been monitoring repeated attacks from the Uruzgan Province. For weeks leading up to the event the attacks became more fierce and coalition aircraft were increasingly engaged with hostile fire. Intelligence suggested Abdul Ghani Baradar one of the four founders of the Taliban was hiding in the village. A large operation was executed and as soon as coalition aircraft including several AC-130 attack planes and a B-52 bomber, entered the area they came under intense anti-aircraft fire that was later falsely labeled celebratory AK-47 fire. The aircraft were operating above 10,000' AGL and the lead AC-130 was engage with AAA narrowly missing and passing through their altitude before self destructing overhead the aircraft.

With the US planes being targeted by anti-aircraft fire they used their sensors and visually located a ZU-23/2 in the center of the village engaging the U.S. aircraft, they then attacked and destroyed the anti-aircraft weapon and the personal operating it.

Event

The Taliban immediately tried to change the narrative and claimed the coalition forces struck a wedding party. The Afghan government conducted an investigation but did not allow coalition forces to participate and backed up the Taliban claim that it was a wedding, and that guests had fired bullets into the air in celebration.^[1]^[3] The attack is cited as one of many criminal negligence made by Coalition forces in the early days of the Afghan War, which increasingly drove more Afghans to fight for the Taliban. The killing of innocent family members demands severe revenge in the Pashtunwali tradition.^[4]

The Taliban tried to shape a false narrative that is was celebratory AK-47, a subsequent investigation including video evidence confirmed the presence of the 23MM anti-aircraft gun and the tracers going through the aircraft altitude. As a frame of reference the 7.62MM projectile fired from the AK-47 has a max vertical altitude of 4600' and no self-destruct feature.

Afterwards

On September 8, 2002, the United States military concluded an investigation, and stated that no wrongdoing occurred with the bombing.^[5]

With the coalition operating above 10,000' and the video evidence of the 23MM and the fire detonating above the aircraft it was confirmed the Taliban had lied and were using the incident for propaganda purposes.

On July 3, 2002, President George W. Bush extended condolences to the families of the attack.^[6]