Washington ? American military officials said Friday it now appears highly likely that U.S. soldiers who raided two compounds in Afghanistan on Jan. 23 mistakenly captured or killed people loyal to the new Afghan government.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Afghanistan area, is attempting to verify its original claim that all of the estimated 15 people killed and the 27 taken prisoner were either al-Qaida or Taliban fighters.

Local Afghans say some of those killed were anti-Taliban forces loyal to Hamid Karzai, the head of the interim Afghan government, and that among those arrested were a police chief, his deputy and members of a district council. They labeled the raid a tragic case of mistaken identities.

Two U.S. senior military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday that while it does not look like all of those killed and captured were friendly to the new government, some probably were.

One official said it seemed likely that the killed and captured were a mixture of Afghans loyal to Karzai, “criminals” not necessarily associated with the Taliban or al-Qaida, and some Taliban fighters.

One U.S. soldier suffered a bullet wound in the ankle during the raid, which was carried out under the cover of darkness. U.S. officials said in the raid’s immediate aftermath that it was carried out on the basis of intelligence information that indicated the compounds were an al-Qaida hide-out.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that basic facts about the raid including who shot first had yet to be verified. He was unwilling to say U.S. forces misidentified the targeted compounds as hide-outs for al-Qaida or Taliban fighters.

“I don’t think it was any sense on our part that we’ve done something wrong,” Myers said. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, ordered the investigation because “when there are allegations, you’ve got to go run them to ground,” Myers said.

Myers said it was too early to conclude that the wrong people had been killed or captured. But he acknowledged that it is difficult in some cases for the American military to distinguish friend from foe.

“The situation over there can be very, very complex, with allegiances changing depending on the situation,” he said.

Appearing with Myers, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Franks ordered the investigation after hearing from Afghan officials.

“In their view, there were some people involved in that shooting that were killed who were not Taliban or al-Qaida,” Rumsfeld said. Thus, Franks considered it appropriate to open a formal investigation, he said.