Wednesday October 24, 2001

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The United Nations confirmed yesterday that a U.S. bomb struck a military hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat but said it had no information regarding casualties.

However, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said a U.S. bomb went astray near a senior citizens' home in Herat, landing in a field between the home and a military vehicle storage facility. The 1,000-pound bomb was dropped Sunday by an F/A-18.

Clarke said she did not know if the building she called a senior citizens' center was the same as the hospital involved in the report from the United Nations.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have said a U.S. and British airstrike Monday hit a hospital, killing more than 100 patients and medical workers. They did not say whether it was a civilian or military hospital.

U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker, citing independent U.N. sources within Afghanistan, said Tuesday that a bomb hit a military hospital within a military compound on Harat's eastern edge.

U.N. officials did not know whether the hospital was being used at the time or whether any civilians or military personnel may have been hurt, Bunker said in Islamabad.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have expelled almost all foreign journalists, making it difficult for media to come up with independent assessments of civilian casualties in the more than two-week-old air campaign.