the taliban retreated into laghman province with their dead and wounded. they dispersed into three villages near the place of the ambush. these villages were bombed by nato for three days, causing 40 civilian dead, destroying 150 houses and forcing 2000 people to flee. one of the villages received 70 bombs, prompting inhabitants to complain of reprisals. general georgelin defended these actions as "destroying two huge weapon caches helping the logistics of the insurgents", but did not address the question of "collateral damage". afghan intelligence services have stated that most of the victims of the bombings were women and children, which they claim proves that the men had taken part in the ambush.