Karzai slams Afghan deaths after raid on U.S.
Source: Reuters
(Corrects paragraph 1 to three children, not four) By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL, March 5 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday condemned U.S. troops for shooting dead 10 civilians at the weekend as officials said nine more -- five women, three children and an old man -- had been killed in an air strike. The nine were killed on Sunday in Kapisa province, barely 90 minutes' drive northeast of Kabul, the deputy provincial governor, Sayed Dawood Hashimi, said on Monday. That strike followed a rocket attack on a U.S. base. Both NATO and the U.S.-led coalition which also operates in the area said they were investigating. U.S. marines also shot dead 10 civilians in the east on Sunday, which Karzai condemned, in what the U.S. military said was a "complex" Taliban ambush involving a suicide bombing and gunfire in a populated area outside Jalalabad city near Pakistan. The military said the soldiers fired in self-defence and 16 civilians were killed in the suicide raid and subsequent firing. No provincial or central government official has confirmed the U.S. military's account that the convoy came under rebel gunfire. Analysts say killing of civilians by NATO and U.S. troops is sapping public support for the foreign mission here. NO JUSTIFICATION - WITNESS Two provincial government officials said on Sunday 10 civilians were killed and more than 25 wounded as U.S. soldiers fled the scene of the attack. Wounded in hospital said U.S. soldiers just opened fire. "The Americans fired at us without any justification," said Sayeda Jan, a passenger in a passing vehicle who was shot. "Karzai should raise his voice and intervene about it, but he won't because he is thinking about his power. We were in the car and saw the convoy coming from the opposite direction and they fired at us." Hospital doctors say 30 people were wounded in the shooting. "Karzai strongly condemned the incident that took place," the palace said in a statement on Sunday. Karzai has ordered an inquiry, but previous such investigations by NATO and the Afghan government have done nothing more than confirm witness accounts that those killed were civilians. Despite hundreds of civilian deaths, no foreign soldier has ever been found guilty of any wrongdoing. There was no immediate official comment on the air raid deaths. The Taliban have threatened an offensive in coming weeks after the bloodiest year since their 2001 overthrow. More than 4,000 people died in 2006, a quarter of them civilians. Dozens of those were killed by foreign troops, mainly in air raids. (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, editing by Terry Friel; Kabul newsroom, tel: + 93 799 335 285))
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