Bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers, 5 Afghan fighters

2,000-pound bomb a 'devastating weapon'

Counting Wednesday's accident, four Americans have now been killed in combat in Afghanistan and four others have died in accidents.

The president offered his sympathy to families of those killed and injured.

"The president offers his condolences to the families and loved ones affected by this morning's accident," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters in his daily morning meeting. "He regrets the loss of life and he wishes the injured a full and speedy recovery."

Stufflebeem described the bomb as a "devastating weapon."

"As a pilot, when I would drop a 2,000-pound weapon, I wanted at least 4,000 feet of separation from that weapon when it went off," he said.

Five U.S. soldiers were seriously wounded when another JDAM bomb went astray while warplanes were helping put down last week's Taliban prisoner uprising in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Stufflebeem said he did not know if the U.S. forces were actively involved in the fighting between opposition and Taliban forces.

"You know, the motto of these special forces is, 'to liberate the oppressed,'" he said. "These men died as heroes and were wounded as heroes."

Close-air support a 'hazardous business'

Both Clarke and Stufflebeem cautioned reporters not to draw any conclusions about what might have gone wrong.

"It's going to take a few days to find out what happened," Stufflebeem said.

As described by Stufflebeem, a forward air controller decides to call for an airstrike and determines the coordinates of where enemy forces are as well as the coordinates of the U.S. troops. The controller then sends that information to aircraft along with when the bomb should be dropped. Personnel aboard the aircraft then enter the information into the weapon's targeting system and perform the mission, if it is possible.

The admiral said a close air support mission is "one of the potentially most hazardous type of missions" U.S. forces can undertake in combat.

"Calling in airstrikes, nearly simultaneously on your own position, on enemy forces that you're engaged in close proximity to, is a hazardous business and takes very fine control and coordination and precision," he said.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan leader who is to head the country's transitional government, was slightly wounded by shrapnel from the errant bomb.

Karzai, who suffered flesh wounds, was in the area north of Kandahar when the bombing occurred. Asked about whether Karzai was injured, Clarke said the Pentagon has received reports that "he was out, was visible and seems to be doing fine."

Karzai spoke to CNN International in the hours after the attack and made no mention of the attack or any injury.

Human Error Suspected in Deadly Afghan Mishap

Friendly Fire Kills Three U.S. Soldiers; Bombs Coordinates Analyzed

Dec. 6

U.S. military officials investigating the deadly mishap in Afghanistan that killed three American and five Afghan anti-Taliban soldiers are looking at the possibility human error was to blame, sources told ABCNEWS.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press today quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying Taliban supreme spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was negotiating a surrender of Kandahar to Mullah Naqib Ullah, a tribal elder who was once a military officer in the city. But the report was not confirmed by independent sources.

The announcement came after Hamid Karzai, an Afghan Pashtun leader who was nominated the head of a transitional Afghan government, met with senior Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan.

"They came to see me today and we had a nice, fruitful negotiation," he told Reuters today after two days of meetings with Taliban officials near Kandahar.

Human error is being explored as the cause of Wednesday's accident because the wrong coordinates were radioed to the B-52 from the ground or wrong numbers were entered into the bomb's guidance system, sources said. But there is the possibility that the guidance system failed although the Pentagon has found the JDAM the most reliable in this campaign.

The killed Americans were identified as Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Tennessee; Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Henry Petithory, 32, of Cheshire, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of California. All three soldiers served in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, based in Fort Campbell, Ky.

Four of the injured Americans were in a critical condition, said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

Two of the injured U.S. soldiers are remaining in Afghanistan and will be returned to duty. The other 17 have been evacuated to other locations, with some of the most seriously wounded first going to a hospital in the Persian Gulf nation of Oman.