The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 71/No. 11      March 19, 2007

 
U.S. forces in Afghanistan
kill at least 23 civilians
(front page)
 
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
March 5—U.S. Marine Special Forces conducting operations in eastern Afghanistan yesterday opened fire on civilians by the roadway near Jalalabad, killing at least 14 and wounding dozens of others. Later that evening U.S. warplanes dropped two 2,000-pound bombs that killed nine other civilians—three children, five women, and an elderly man—in a house in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul.

In response to the Marines' gunfire assault, several hundred protesters blocked the main road from Jalalabad to the border with Pakistan for two hours. They shouted, "Death to America," and "Death to Karzai," referring to Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. military officials said the Marines were responding to the detonation of a car packed with explosives near their convoy. Interviews AP conducted with wounded Afghans, however, show that U.S. forces were firing indiscriminately along at least a six-mile stretch of one of the busiest highways in eastern Afghanistan. This is a route filled with cars and trucks as well as foot traffic and bicycles.

"They were firing everywhere," Tur Gul, 38, told AP, "and they even opened fire on 14 or 15 vehicles passing on the highway. They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot." Gul said he was standing on the roadside near a gas station and was shot twice in his right hand.

"When we parked our vehicle, when they passed us, they opened fire on our vehicle," said Mohammad Ishaq, 15, who was reportedly hit by two bullets, in the left arm and right ear. "It was a convoy of three American Humvees. All three Humvees were firing around."

Pictures of one of these vehicles riddled with dozens of bullets taken by AP freelance photographer Rahmat Gul were confiscated by U.S. soldiers on the scene. Inside this car were three dead bodies and a wounded 20-year-old, AP reported.

There are 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 15,000 of whom are under NATO command. The rest of the U.S. forces there, some 12,000 troops, conduct operations separate from the 35,000-strong NATO force occupying the country.

According to Human Rights Watch, NATO and other U.S.-led assaults killed more than 100 Afghan civilians in 2006. AP reported the civilian death toll was 834, claiming many were from attacks by Taliban-backed forces.

The news agency Deutsche Press-Agentur, however, reported that Noorulhaq Olomi, chairman of the Defense Committee of the Afghan parliament, said that a more accurate figure is 3,000 civilians killed last year, many from U.S.-led airstrikes.
 
 
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March 17-18 rallies across U.S.: ‘Pull the troops out of Iraq now!’
Washington demands Pakistani rulers do more to fight ‘terror’
New draft Iraqi oil law has many opponents  
 
 
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