At least eight members of an Afghan family were killed in an aerial bombardment in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nooristan, a top official in the area said today.
The victims killed in Friday night's raid were relatives of Ghulam Rabbani, an influential tribal chief of Arsent village in the remote Vigol district, colonel Ghulamullah Nooristani, police chief of Nooristan, told reporters in Kabul.
"The total number of casualties has not been ascertained yet, but I do know that eight people in Rabbani's house have been killed as a result of the bombardment," he said.
Nooristani did not have further details or say who may have carried out the attack, but sources in the capital assumed the raid was carried out by US-led forces stationed in Afghanistan, as they control the country's air space.
Arsent village is near the mountains of neighbouring Kunar province where members of the al Qaeda network, the ousted Taliban regime and followers of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are believed to be operating and hiding.
Rabbani belongs to Jamiat-e-Islami, one of the Islamic factions that was involved in the war against former Soviet forces in the 1980s.
He served as a governor in Kunar province for a decade.
The US military was not immediately contactable.