Friendly-fire deaths spark riots

Themercury.co.za

April 13, 2010

KANDAHAR: International troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians yesterday, killing four people, Afghan official Zelmai Ayubi said, setting off anti-American protests in a key southern city where coalition forces hope to rally the public for a coming offensive against the Taliban.

Elsewhere in the city of Kandahar, three suicide bombers attacked an Afghan intelligence services compound, but were killed after security forces opened fire.

Four intelligence agents and six civilians, including a teacher at a nearby school, were injured in the attack.

Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, is the birthplace of the Taliban regime ousted in 2001, and insurgents remain active there despite a heavy presence of foreign forces.

Securing it is key to the US military’s and Nato’s aim of turning around the more than eight-year war, but anger stirred by civilian deaths threatens to undercut local support.

Yesterday’s shooting at the bus in Kandahar province’s Zhari district left four dead and another 18 people wounded, Ayubi said.

He said international forces took 12 of the wounded to a military hospital.

Nato said it was investigating the shooting and planned to issue a statement.

A passenger, Rozi Mohammad, said they had just left the Kandahar terminal when the bus pulled over to allow an American convoy to pass.

Shooting broke out as the third or fourth American vehicle went by, he said, with gunfire coming from the direction of the convoy.

« They just suddenly opened fire, I don’t know why.

« We had been stopped and after that I don’t know what happened, » said Mohammad, his left eye swollen shut and his beard and clothing matted with blood.

Doctors said he had suffered a head injury, but did not yet know how serious it was.

Within hours, scores of Afghans had blocked the main highway out of Kandahar city with burning tyres, chanting, « Death to America », and calling for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, himself a Kandahar native. – Sapa-AP

Rioters vent fury at US after Nato troops kill Afghan civilians on bus

Independent.co.uk

Protesters take to streets in Kandahar after attack kills four and leaves 18 wounded

By Julius Cavendish in Kabul

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Nato’s hopes for winning over the Afghan population in the south of the country ahead of a massive new military campaign took a major blow yesterday when Nato soldiers opened fire on a civilian bus in Kandahar City and killed four passengers.

Eighteen passengers were also injured in the shooting, which sparked riots in Kandahar. Hundreds of protesters burned tyres, chanted « Death to America! Death to Karzai! Death to this government! » and blocked the main road out of the city.

The timing could hardly have been worse, with tensions already rising ahead of a summer offensive designed to bring the city and its surrounds back under the control of the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Nato and Afghan officials said the incident occurred shortly before dawn but accounts of what happened diverge. One passenger, interviewed in hospital, said the bus had pulled over to allow a Nato convoy to pass. « They just suddenly opened fire, I don’t know why, » said Rozi Mohammad, whose eye was swollen shut and face and clothes were matted with blood. « We had been stopped and after that I don’t know what happened. »

But Nato said that the bus accelerated as it approached a slow-moving convoy searching for roadside bombs. In the darkness soldiers only saw a large vehicle approaching them at speed and, after trying to warn it off with hand signals and flares, opened fire.

« Perceiving a threat when the vehicle approached once more at an increased rate of speed the patrol attempted to warn off the vehicle with hand signals prior to firing upon it. Once engaged, the vehicle then stopped, » Nato said. It added that it had dispatched an « incident assessment team » to find out what happened.

Inside the city, protesters slammed not just Nato but also President Hamid Karzai for failing to stand up to the foreign forces. « The Americans are constantly killing our civilians and the government is not demanding an explanation, » said Mohammad Razaq, a local resident. « We demand justice from the Karzai government and the punishment of those soldiers responsible. »

Mr Karzai, who has in fact repeatedly criticised Nato for killing civilians, said: « This shooting involving a civilian bus violates Nato’s commitment to safeguard civilian life. »

The incident was a stark reminder of the difficulties facing US General Stanley McChrystal, the top Nato commander in Afghanistan, who is grappling with a counter-insurgency doctrine that calls for Nato troops to protect Afghan civilians. Since taking command last year, he has issued tighter rules of engagement and kept a constant stream of communication about the need to keep civilian casualties as low as possible.

In a video conference taking questions from troops earlier this year, General McChrystal said with some frustration, « We’ve shot an amazing number of people » who were not, in fact, threats. In February, he apologised to the Afghan people after a Nato airstrike killed 27 civilians. A separate strike in February killed five civilians suspected of planting roadside bombs close to the scene of Monday’s incident.

Kandahar Mayor Gulam Hamidi said the blowback from civilian casualties was obvious. « I’ve told the Americans and Nato that people are very angry about these kinds of attacks, » he said.

In a separate incident soon after the shooting, a Taliban suicide squad attacked the provincial headquarters of the secret police, a heavily defended compound in Kandahar City. Two of the bombers were killed in a 45-minute battle and a third was captured after being injured by security forces.

Nine civilians including a teacher and five children were wounded in the fighting. According to the UN, the Taliban was responsible for 67 per cent of civilians killed in Afghanistan last year.

Nato Taleban blitz in jeopardy after troops shoot woman and child on bus

Timesonline.co.uk

April 13, 2010

Nato plans for a massive operation in southern Afghanistan suffered a setback yesterday when soldiers opened fire on a bus, killing four civilians including a woman and child, and wounding more than 12 others.

The incident, on a road outside the city of Kandahar sparked angry protests. Elders in Kandahar — where the latest Nato operation will be focused — said that what little faith people still had in the coalition had evaporated.

“The operation hasn’t even started yet, but every day they kill civilians,” said Haji Wali Jan. “Even they must know a bus is full of civilians? If they are afraid of a bus, how can they continue with an operation in Kandahar?”

Hours after the incident a Taleban suicide squad attacked the Afghan intelligence agency’s headquarters in the city. Officials said that three men stormed a house opposite the National Directorate of Security. One of them was shot dead, a second detonated his suicide vest and the third was badly wounded and arrested. Officials said that five residents were wounded.

The attack on the bus is only the latest in a long and bloody series of incidents in which foreign troops have inadvertently killed civilians.

President Karzai — who has wept in public while demanding that Nato should stop killing innocent people — issued a statement condemning the attack and offering his condolences.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) confirmed that four civilians including a woman were killed when a “route clearance patrol” opened fire on a bus in Zhari district.

“An unknown large vehicle approached a slow-moving Isaf route-clearance patrol from the rear at a high rate of speed,” the coalition said. “Upon inspection, Isaf forces discovered the vehicle to be a passenger bus.”

By that stage, however, the soldiers had already opened fire. The coalition claimed that the bus, which local people said was on the way to Oruzgan province, ignored warnings to stop. “The patrol attempted to warn off the vehicle with hand signals prior to firing upon it. Once engaged, the vehicle then stopped,” it said. In February three minibuses travelling in the opposite direction, through Oruzgan to Kandahar, were bombed on orders of US special forces, killing 27 civilians.

Nato said that yesterday’s incident took place before dawn. Fazel Ahmed Sherzai, the head of security in Kandahar’s police department, said it was at 6am, 15 minutes after sunrise. Local journalists and the governor’s spokesman said it was “around 6am”.

Mr Sherzai said the Mercedes bus had overtaken parked traffic and was 40 metres (130ft) from the American convoy when troops opened fire.

Soon after the incident, scores of protesters tried to block the road through Zhari, chanting “Death to America”, and “Death to Karzai” and burning tyres on the road.

“Zhari is where they were planning to do an operation,” Haji Wali Jan said. “Now the people there are furious with the Americans, and everyone knows that without local support from the people, it’s very hard to do an operation.” Haji Jan Mohammed, another elder who lives in Kandahar city, said: “These incidents have a bad effect. Already, most people didn’t trust the foreign troops. With this incident, foreign troops lost all their trust.

“All the elders, everyone knows, if the operation starts, there will be lots of civilian casualties.”

Mr Sherzai dismissed yesterday’s protesters as a minority of toublemakers. “They were unemployed people and some of the bus passengers,” he said.

“They wanted to block the road to Zhari. They had some slogans against the Americans, but the police arrived after half an hour [and] everyone went to their homes.”

A key part of Nato’s Kandahar stra-tegy is to reinforce the local government to match any increase in military security. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the President’s half-brother, is the main power broker in the city. Critics blame him for many of Kandahar’s ills. He has repeatedly denied claims that he controls huge swaths of the opium trade.

US and Nato officials have dropped plans, drawn up after last August’s deeply flawed presidential election, to sideline Ahmed Wali. They optimistically talk of red lines that he will not be able to cross. Some analysts linked President Karzai’s recent anti-American outbursts, including a threat to join the Taleban, with critical media reports about his brother.

Securing Kandahar city, the country’s first capital and the spiritual home of the Taleban, is seen as a key test of President Obama’s surge, involving an extra 30,000 troops. Ambassador Mark Sedwill, Nato’s senior civilian representative in Kabul, said the coalition hoped to “shura [their] way to success”, in a reference to the name of traditional community meetings — a strategy that will have been made more difficult by yesterday’s incident. Nato officials had hoped to broker a series of local deals with community and tribal leaders that would lead to thousands of US and coalition troops invited into the countryside, alongside Afghan forces, with local consent.

During a visit to the city last week, President Karzai promised tribal leaders he would only authorise the planned offensive — codenamed Operation Omid, or hope — if it had their blessing.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 13 avril 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots