Foreign journalists were brought to a remote Afghan village today to see for themselves the destruction that Taliban officials say was caused during an air raid by US warplanes last Wednesday.
The Taliban say Khorum, about 38 miles from Jalalabad was flattened in the air raid by US warplanes and as many as 200 people may have been killed.
Officials say 160 bodies have already been pulled from the rubble, and villagers from neighbouring hamlets were still looking for more today when a group of reporters accompanied by Taliban officials toured the area from Pakistan.
The reporters were besieged by more than 100 students from a nearby Islamic school chanting "Down with America", "Long Live Islam" and "We are ready for Jihad (holy war)".
While it was not clear if the protest was spontaneous or orchestrated, it was clear their feelings were genuine.
Washington has so far not commented on the report, although Pentagon officials have said at least one of its bombs had missed its target, but that was near Kabul, since air raids in pursuit of Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden began last Sunday.
An officer aboard the USS Carl Vinson, from where many of the planes that are bombing Afghanistan have been launched, said the 2,000-lb (900 kg) bomb that went astray would cause a "significant emotional event for anyone within a square mile".
Reporters saw only a dozen or so freshly dug graves that officials said included the bodies of children killed in the raid.
However, in a hospital in Jalalabad, doctors said they had treated 17 people injured from Khorum. In one room, three tiny children aged 18 months, three and four lay with injuries and nurses said the trio had all lost their entire families.