Eyewitnesses said there were 60 armed Taliban on the scene along with 15 to 20 other people. "But at half past two at night, no normal civilians would dare to go out in this area, which is more than four kilometers from the nearest village," said Omar.

Anyone in the vicinity of the fuel tankers must have been criminal or a supporter of the Taliban, he said. The US criticism of the attack appeared to be a gut reaction, he added. "The Americans probably didn't eat well and had bad dreams."

Disputed Casualty Figures

It remains unclear how many people were killed in the strike. The German army said a total of 56 Taliban insurgents were killed but there is no "consolidated information" about civilian casualties, German Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said on Monday.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a NATO fact-finding team estimated that 125 people were killed, at least two dozen of whom were not insurgents.

Some eyewitnesses reported seeing more than 100 dead civilians at the site. Ghulam Mahyodin, a man who lives in Char Dara province, said his son had been among a group of people from a nearby village trying to siphon oil from the tankers. He said the Taliban had already left the area. "My son burned to death," said Mahyodin. "I expect the government to conduct a serious investigation."