U.S. warplanes and helicopters have killed a civilian in a bombing raid in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province, an Afghan news agency reported on Thursday. The independent Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted unnamed witnesses as saying the aircraft launched a heavy attack on Wednesday night in the Zarmat area, about 18 miles south of Gardez, the capital of Paktia province.

The U.S. military has been criticized for inflicting civilian casualties in Afghanistan. One media report suggested hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands injured by U.S. forces.

"According to our information, one person has been killed," AIP quoted the governor of Paktia, Raz Mohammad Dalili, as saying. He said the person killed was a male civilian.

AIP said full details of human and property losses were not yet known. Zarmat is close to Shahi Kot valley, where the U.S.-led allied forces fought the largest ground battle in their war against al Qaeda and Taliban militants in March.

Criticism of U.S. forces grew after an air strike killed dozens of civilians celebrating a wedding in the central region of Uruzgan on July 1.

A U.N. preliminary report said the United States may have understated the death toll and covered up evidence related to the attack, which angry Afghans saw as a massive unprovoked air strike on defenseless civilians.

The Pentagon denies any cover up and the U.N. refused to release a more comprehensive report, passing it instead to U.S. and Afghan investigators.

The Los Angeles Times this month estimated that the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands more.

RUMSFELD DEFEFEDS U.S. FAILURE IN AFGAHANISTAN

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended the U.S. anti-terrorism war effort Wednesday under sharp criticism from a Democratic senator.

Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., said he was frustrated that the United States has not "found Osama bin Laden and his terrorist cadre."

"One of the things I learned in Vietnam is that if a terrorist doesn't lose, he wins," Cleland told Rumsfeld at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Rumsfeld, his voice rising, said the U.S. campaign has been successful so far in devastating the al-Qaida terrorist network's ability to carry out further attacks.

"You can be frustrated if you want, I'm not," Rumsfeld said. "We have a serious effort going on."

Rumsfeld repeatedly said the military does not know where bin Laden is or even if he is alive.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in the region, also acknowledged that many al-Qaida members had escaped the December assault on the Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan. Franks said Afghan forces, not U.S. commanders, pressed the attack against al-Qaida forces holed up in mountain caves near the border with Pakistan.

Franks said the military's best estimate is that hundreds of al-Qaida forces were killed but it was impossible to know precisely how many. He also acknowledged he was eager to show Afghans that the United States was not an invading force.

PHOTO CAPTION

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, right, huddles with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Capitol Hill Wednesday, July 31, 2002 prior to testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Pabol Martinez Monsivais)
- Jul 31 8:35 PM ET