However, Karzai — who repeatedly warns that civilian casualties undermine anti-insurgency efforts — said the airstrike killed 10 campaign workers.
“The rationale for the airstrike still needs to be fully investigated,’’ Karzai said at a joint news conference in Kabul with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Gates said he had not heard about civilian casualties, but said the attack had hit its intended target and promised an investigation.
“I am able to confirm that a very senior official of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was the target and was killed,’’ Gates said.
Earlier, Takhar Governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa said the car in which candidate Abdul Wahid Khorasani had been riding was fired on by helicopters following an initial pass by fighter jets. He called the attack an obvious mistake, saying there were no Uzbek militants, foreigners, or members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the convoy.
“There aren’t even any Taliban in this area,’’ Taqwa said. “They were all working on Mr. Khorasani’s campaign.’’
Reached by phone at a hospital in Kabul, Khorasani said windows of the six vehicles in the convoy had been plastered with his campaign posters and all those traveling with him had been members of his extended family, including a man named Amanullah, who had been allied with a local Uzbek warlord and recently returned from a lengthy visit to neighboring Pakistan.
Khorasani said Amanullah was among the 10 people killed in the attack, which he said left seven wounded.
Khorasani, who said he received minor injuries, suggested that the attack may have been prompted by false information fed to the Americans by a political rival, and called for a thorough investigation.
“I ask the international community and the Afghan government — investigate and find out who was the spy who gave you this bad information,’’ he said.
A local politician with knowledge of the airstrike, but who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the attack was probably linked to rivalries among ethnic Uzbek politicians in the province.
