US troops kill Afghan civilians, threaten media

Thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan on Mar. 4 after US forces were involved in a panicked shooting which left 16 civilians dead and 23 injured. Local people as well as a number of Afghan officials accused the US Marines of opening fire indiscriminately following a suicide bomb attack on their convoy in Nangarhar province. With protests continuing to grow, and the police coming under attack from stone-throwing crowds, the US military maintained that the casualties were the victims of a "complex ambush" in which gunmen had carried out a synchronized attack following the blast in which a Marine was injured. But Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar district, where the deaths took place, insisted that they "treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker" as they attempted to speed away from the scene of the explosion. Abdul Ghafour and Noor Agha Zwak, speaking on behalf of the Nangarhar police and government, and Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Kabul, also claimed the deaths and injuries were due to US fire. As crowds blocked roads shouting "death to America" and "death to Karzai," some of those who were injured related their version of what had happened. "They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway," said 38-year-old Tur Gul, who was shot twice in his right hand. "They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot." Some said that they were fired upon although they took care to get out of the way of the departing convoy. "We parked our vehicle, but when they passed us, they still opened fire on our vehicle," said 15-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, who was hit by two bullets, in his left arm and his right ear, at a local hospital. Ahmed Najib, 23, lying in the next bed, was hit by a bullet in his right shoulder. He said: "One American was in the first vehicle, shouting to stop on the side of the road, and we stopped. The first vehicle did not fire on us, but the second opened fire on our car. My two-year-old brother was grazed on the cheek by a bullet." The convoy was passing through the highway near the provincial capital, Jalalabad, when a minibus packed with explosives was detonated. The military convoy subsequently came under fire from several directions. Major William Mitchell, a spokesman, said: "We certainly believe it's possible that the incoming fire from the ambush was wholly or partly responsible for the civilian casualties." Ajmel Pardus, the provincial health chief, said the initial number of those killed was eight, but others had later died from their injuries. He added that women and children were among those wounded. A freelance photographer working for the Associated Press and a cameraman working for AP Television News said a US soldier deleted their photos and video showing a four-wheel drive vehicle in which three people were shot to death about 100 yards from the suicide bombing. The AP plans to lodge a protest with the US military. The photographer, Rahmat Gul, said witnesses at the scene told him the three had been shot to death by US forces fleeing the attack. The two AP freelancers arrived at the site about a half hour after the suicide bombing, Gul said. "When I went near the four-wheel drive, I saw the Americans taking pictures of the same car, so I started taking pictures," Gul said. "Two soldiers with a translator came and said, 'Why are you taking pictures? You don't have permission.'" It wasn't clear why the accredited journalists would need permission to take photos of a civilian car on a public highway. Gul said the US soldiers took his camera, deleted his photos and returned it to him. The journalists came across another US soldier, showed their identification cards, and he agreed that they could take pictures. "The same soldier who took my camera came again and deleted my photos," Gul said. "The soldier was very angry.... I told him, 'They gave us permission,' but he didn't listen." Gul's new photos were also deleted, and the US soldier, speaking through a translator, warned him that he did not want to see any AP photos published anywhere. The soldier also raised his fist in anger as if he was going to hit him, but he did not strike, Gul said. Khanwali Kamran, a reporter for the Afghan channel Ariana Television, was in a small group of journalists working alongside Gul. Kamran said the US soldiers also deleted his footage. "They warned me that if it is aired... then, 'You will face problems,'" Kamran said. Taqiullah Taqi, a reporter for Afghanistan's largest television station, Tolo TV, said US soldiers were using abusive language. "According to the translator, they said, 'Delete them, or we will delete you,'" Taqi said. A freelance cameraman for AP Television News said that about 100 yards from the bomb site, a US officer told him that he could not go any closer to the scene but that he could shoot footage. The cameraman asked not to be named for his own safety. "Then I started filming the suicide attack site, where there was a body and US soldiers, and farther away, there was a four-wheel drive vehicle in which three people were shot to death," he said. As he was filming, a US soldier and translator "ordered us not to move." The cameraman said they were very angry and deleted any footage that included US soldiers, as well as part of an interview from the demonstrations. The day after this incident, an Afghan official said that a NATO airstrike hit a house during an overnight battle between Western troops and militants, killing nine innocent Afghans living there. Sayad Mohammad Dawood Hashimmi, Kapisa deputy governor, said the airstrike killed a man, three boys and five women. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pleaded repeatedly for Western troops to take care not to harm civilians, and in December wept during a speech lamenting civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces.