Compound

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - American Special Forces troops mistakenly fired on a group of friendly Afghan soldiers in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing three men and wounding two others they mistook for al-Qaida fighters, American military officials said. The brief battle occurred near the town of Gardez in a mountainous region where more than 300 British Royal Marines and scores of coalition forces are hunting for bands of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who seem to move with impunity across the loosely guarded border with Pakistan.

HOUSTON -- Federal officials waited seven months before acting on information that Branch Davidian members possessed parts to illegally manufacture machine guns and explosive devices, documents indicate.Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms affidavits filed in federal court, as well as other investigation documents reviewed by the Houston Chronicle, suggest that information on the parts was gathered in June, but the ATF investigation came to a virtual standstill the following month and the probe was not revived until early December.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The woman who claims to have been raped at the Kennedy family estate left the compound after the alleged assault but apparently returned shortly afterward and talked with William Kennedy Smith, the man she named as her attacker, sources close to the case said.The disclosure comes as police say they are nearing the end of their investigation and follows the revelation that the 29-year-old woman took an antique vase and possibly Kennedy family photographs from the mansion because she wanted to prove that she had been there.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military acknowledged yesterday that six more children have been killed in a bombing raid in operations against suspected Taliban members in eastern Afghanistan. A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, said the bodies of the children and two adults were found under a collapsed wall when troops searched the bombed compound east of Gardez. The assault took place Friday but the military acknowledged the deaths only when asked about them at a news conference here yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has chosen the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, a former Watergate prosecutor and a journalism professor to oversee its investigation of the February raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, senior officials said yesterday.Officials said Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen had selected Chief Willie L. Williams, Henry Ruth, the former prosecutor, and Edwin O. Guthman to evaluate the investigation. Mr. Guthman, a former official in the Justice Department who worked under Robert F. Kennedy, is now a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.

I was nine years old when I was introduced to the world of wall repairs. In a tantrum over an infringement of my civil rights (I was not allowed to watch television for more than 10 hours that day) I savagely kicked open the door to my bedroom and heard a sickening crack. The doorknob had stuck into the wall. As I gingerly pulled it away, a shower of white flecks tumbled out all over the floor.I was terrified. Not only had one of my civil rights been rescinded, but now I was going to experience capital punishment.

The verdicts in the murder cases against survivors of the Waco disaster are fittingly ambiguous. None of the 11 defendants was convicted of the more serious murder and conspiracy charges, but five were found guilty of something called aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter. This acknowledges that four federal agents were killed in the first attempt to storm the Branch Davidian stronghold in Texas a year ago. But it leaves unresolved the question who was really at fault.In no way can the violent deaths of lawmen be condoned.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan defense official said last night that Osama bin Laden had escaped the country and was hiding in the mountainous border region of Pakistan. The Pentagon dismissed the report, but said it no idea of his whereabouts. The report came as the Pentagon said U.S. warplanes had destroyed a compound in eastern Afghanistan that it believes was used by the chief of intelligence for the fallen Taliban regime. Local villagers said as many as 40 civilians were killed, but the Pentagon could not confirm the casualty figure.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Red Mosque became a flashpoint for renewed violence yesterday as authorities attempted to reopen it for Muslim prayers, with militants battling police and an apparent suicide blast nearby killing at least 13 people. The mosque in the heart of the capital was the scene just over two weeks ago of a raid by commandos who seized the compound from the heavily armed followers of a pair of radical clerics. More than 100 people died, and a wave of reprisal attacks by militants in subsequent days left another 180 people dead.