Print

Mail

wiki links

Protesting Afghans livid over civilian death claims

Thousands of Afghans staged a protest yesterday accusing US-led coalition and Afghan troops of killing civilians in the western province of Herat, residents said.

The protesters stormed a government district headquarters in Shindand, south of Herat City, where Western troops have a large base, they said.

Police reinforcements were sent from Herat to prevent the protesters moving on the base. Gunfire was heard but it was not immediately clear who was firing and if there were casualties.

Provincial officials refused to comment.

US-led coalition forces yesterday said troops killed 136 Taliban fighters in several days of clashes in the remote Afghan valley, but angry locals insisted civilians were among the dead.

Earlier, the coalition said that US Special Forces, accompanied by police and other coalition members, attacked Taliban fighting positions in the valley on Sunday.

The troops used mortars, small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, it said in a statement, adding that when reinforcements arrived, coalition aircraft dropped "multiple munitions on several identified enemy locations."

An AC-130 gunship killed 26 fighters on both sides of the valley, it said: "A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed, and 87 Taliban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement."

Two days earlier more than 70 fighters had attacked a US Special Forces and Afghan police unit on a night-time patrol in the area.

The security forces retaliated with ground and air fire, killing 49 Taliban, it said. A US soldier was also killed whose death was announced on Friday.

"Every precaution was taken to prevent injury to innocent Afghan civilians during the two battles, and there were no civilian injuries reported," the statement said.

But locals in the valley, which is about 150km south of the western city of Herat, said civilians were among the dead.

"There is a demonstration in the Zerkoh area of Shindand district. There has been some violence and gunshots were heard," Herat police chief Mohammad Shafiq Fazli said.

"We have sent some 300 policemen to the area to control the situation. So far we have no reports of any casualties," he said.

One demonstrator said that children had also been killed.

"The people they have killed are not Taliban, they are civilians. They have killed civilians including children," he said. "We don't want the Americans in our area."

There have been several cases of civilians being killed in military action targeted at insurgents trying to bring down Afghanistan's Western-backed government.

Officials say, however, that sometimes such claims are false and intended to feed resentment against the thousands of foreign troops in the country.

The coalition says it tries to minimize "collateral damage" but casualties arise when militants attack from compounds housing civilians.
This story has been viewed 1126 times.