The so-called “wedding party” near the Syrian border that was attacked by US forces on Wednesday appears to have been something else entirely: US Says No Evidence of Wedding at Site.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy chief of staff for operations, showed slides of military binoculars, guns and battery packs that could be used to trigger roadside bombs found by U.S. troops at the site.

He said “terrorist manuals,” telephone numbers for Afghanistan and foreign passports, including one Sudanese, were also recovered there.

Survivors of the attack in Mogr el-Deeb, a desert village inhabited by members of the Bou Fahad clan, said they had just finished a wedding celebration when bombs fell before dawn Wednesday. More than 40 people were killed, including women and children.

Associated Press Television News footage taken at the site Thursday showed broken musical instruments, pieces of bloodied women’s hair and the bodies of children. Kimmitt said no musical instruments were found, however. …

During a briefing for reporters, Kimmitt said the military was investigating the raid and had reached no final conclusions. However, he displayed pictures of some of the items found at the site.

He said suspicious materials included about 300 sets of bedding, 100 sets of prepackaged clothing as well as a “medical treatment room.” He said the clothing could have been for infiltrators seeking to disguise themselves as Iraqis.

He said white powder also was found that could have been cocaine. The border area is a popular route for smugglers.

“None of the bodies had identification of any kind on them, no ID cards, no wallets, no pictures,” Kimmitt said. “They had watches, and that was about the only way you could identify one person from another.”

He said the absence of identification, as well as the remoteness of the area, suggested “that this was a high-risk meeting of high-level, anti-coalition forces.”

The military’s finding contrasts sharply with statements by survivors as well as local officials in Ramadi. On Thursday, a well-known wedding singer, Hussein al-Ali, was buried in Baghdad, and his family said he was killed in the airstrike.

Bou Fahad clansmen, who raise livestock, denied the presence of foreign fighters in their group. Members of the clan said the attack began a few hours after the wedding festivities had broken up for the night.

Kimmitt said farm vehicles were found, but that they showed no signs of being used for ranching. Nor, he added, was there evidence of any wedding celebration. “There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration,” he said. “No gifts. The men were almost all of military age.”

“There may have been some kind of celebration,” Kimmitt said. “Bad people have celebrations, too. Bad people have parties, too, and it may have been what was seen as some kind of celebration … may have been just a meeting in the middle of the desert by some people conducting criminal or terrorist activities.”