AFGHANISTAN: Coalition Killings Spark Furious Street Protests

Copyright 2007 NoticiasFinancieras/Groupo de Diarios America
All Rights Reserved
IPS (Latin America)

April 30, 2007 Monday

LENGTH: 773 words

HEADLINE: Protests against killings of civilians in military operations;
AFGHANISTAN: Coalition Killings Spark Furious Street Protests

BYLINE: Abdul Samad Rohani and S. Mudassir Ali Shah

BODY:

On Monday, thousands of furious people took to the streets to  
denounce a "cold blooded massacre" of dozens of civilians by  
coalition troops in western Herat provinces, which has been  
relatively calm.

The previous day, protestors blocked the busy Jalalabad-Torkham Road  
in Ghanikhel district, eastern Nangarhar province, to protest the  
killings of four rebel fighters and two women by "American soldiers"  
who raided a compound on a tip-off that the cell was plotting suicide  
car bomb attacks on coalition forces in the coming weeks.

But the U.S.-led coalition insisted Apr. 30 that the 136 killed by  
American and Afghan forces in operations over three days in Zerkoh  
Valley of Herat were Taliban insurgents, including two local commanders.

Belying the coalition assertion, a large number of angry residents -  
demonstrating against the operations û torched the Shindand district  
headquarters. "Scores of civilians have perished in the clash and the  
subsequent air strike," one demonstrator told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Abdul Ghafoor revealed many scared families had fled the locality in  
the wake of the battle that lasted several hours. He saw no  
justification for the coalition action in an area "where there are no  
armed groups," claiming the troops killed ordinary people without  
ascertaining enemy locations.

Another dweller of Shindand, Abdul Manan, echoed Ghafoor's version of  
the situation. The ruthless overnight bombardment continued till 10  
am, he said, claiming war-weary residents were shifting to safer  
places after the fierce battles.

Police spokesman Col. Noor Khan Nekzad, confirming the large-scale  
demonstration against foreign forces, said he had no information  
about the burning of the district offices.

Meanwhile, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, speaking for the insurgents, claimed  
Taliban fighters had killed at least 28 foreign and Afghan troops in  
the engagements besides setting alight two military vehicles.

However, the coalition said that the forces, tipped off about  
militant activity in the Zerkoh Valley, launched an attack on Taliban  
positions with mortar, small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

Later on, Afghan National Army (ANA) and coalition reinforcements  
joined the troops, who radioed for close air support to target the  
rebel positions. An aircraft dropped multiple munitions on several  
enemy targets, the coalition said.

In a statement issued from the Bagram air-field, the coalition said  
as Taliban fighters tried to flee, an AC-130 gunship engaged and  
killed 26 fighters on both sides of the river valley.

"A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed and 87 Taliban  
fighters killed during a 14-hour engagement," the statement said of  
the battle that took place 37 miles ( 59.5 km) south of Shindand on  
Sunday.

Another 49 guerrillas, including two local Taliban commanders, were  
killed two days earlier by a combination of small-arms fire and close  
air support near the Parmakan village in the same valley.

The clash was triggered by a rebel attack on a joint patrol of Afghan  
police and U.S. Special Forces in the area, the coalition said. One  
U.S. soldier was also killed in the engagement.

"Taliban fighters are no match for ANA and coalition forces," said  
Army Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force-82 spokesman.

"We will intensify our operations to rid Afghanistan of all Taliban  
and foreign fighters who harm innocent Afghan civilians and threaten  
the government of Afghanistan," the spokesman vowed.

The almost daily gun battles between a resurgent Taliban and  
coalition troops in Afghanistan to prop up the Hamid Karzai  
government have claimed at least 4,000 civilian lives since 2006.

Reports from southern Helmand province on Sunday confirmed six  
children and women were killed as NATO warplanes bombarded houses in  
Kharko area of Garmser district. But police denied the pounding of  
civilian targets in the air strike.

Ghulam Shah, a resident of Kharko, told Pajhwok Afghan News all the  
dead were ordinary villagers with no links to any militant group. The  
area was pounded after Taliban gunmen attacked an ISAF convoy, he said.

Protestors in Nangarhar province alleged that soldiers shot dead in  
cold blood six people including two women in the dawn raid. Coffins  
of the slain lay on the roadside during the noisy protest, a local  
tribal elder told Pajhwok Afghan News.

But the coalition said in a statement the six people were killed in  
retaliatory fire from the raiding party. After being fired upon, the  
forces retaliated, killing four militants, an adult woman and a  
teenage girl, it added. © 2007 NoticiasFinancieras - IPS - All rights  
reserved

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