Afghans say President Karzai's five-year handover is not soon enough

"People hate the Americans from the bottom of their hearts," Haji Akhtar Mohammed Shinwari said as he recalled how the US military had brought death to his homeland. For residents of Shinwar, a village in distant Nangahar province, the message from President Karzai's address yesterday that the Americans would hand over security over the next five years was disappointing. At the village bazaar, Shinwari told The Times that he could not wait that long. In 2007, a unit of special forces was speeding along a busy road a few miles from his village when they opened fire, killing 19 people and wounding 50. The unit responsible was sent home and the local US commander described the incident as a "stain on our honor". He paid out almost $40,000 in compensation. But trust, in Afghanistan's conservative Pashtun belt, is hard won and easily forfeited. In the 20 months since the attack house raids by NATO troops had continued, Shinwari, 44, said. More civilians had been killed, while little had been done to help ordinary people. "People don't like their operations," he said. "They search houses without permission, detain people without trial." In the neighboring village of Rakhzi, Niaz Amin, a 20-year-old student, lost his older brother and grandfather in American operations last year. "We still don't know why they did it," he said. "When they came into the house I tried to speak to them in English but they shouted, 'Don't speak'."