US troops drag schoolchlidren from their beds and execute them - Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed
Johnny Asia
Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were
killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that
some victims were handcuffed before being killed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6971638.ece
December 31, 2009
Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including
children
Afghan protesters shout slogans during a protest in Kabul
(/Ahmad Masood/Reuters)
American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent
children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that
left ten people dead.
Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were
killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that
some victims were handcuffed before being killed.
The allegations of civilian casualties led to protests in Kabul and
Jalalabad, with children as young as 10 chanting �Death to America�
and demanding that foreign forces should leave Afghanistan at once.
President Karzai sent a team of investigators to Narang district, in
eastern Kunar province, after reports of a massacre first surfaced on
Monday.
�The delegation concluded that a unit of international forces
descended from a plane Sunday night into Ghazi Khan village in Narang
district of the eastern province of Kunar and took ten people from
three homes, eight of them school students in grades six, nine and
ten, one of them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot them
dead,� a statement on President Karzai�s website said.
Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US soldiers flew
to Kunar from Kabul, suggesting that they were part of a special
forces unit.
�At around 1 am, three nights ago, some American troops with
helicopters left Kabul and landed around 2km away from the village,�
he told The Times. �The troops walked from the helicopters to the
houses and, according to my investigation, they gathered all the
students from two rooms, into one room, and opened fire.� Mr Wafa, a
former governor of Helmand province, met President Karzai to discuss
his findings yesterday. �I spoke to the local headmaster,� he said.
�It�s impossible they were al-Qaeda. They were children, they were
civilians, they were innocent. I condemn this attack.�
In a telephone interview last night, the headmaster said that the
victims were asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. �Seven
students were in one room,� said Rahman Jan Ehsas. �A student and one
guest were in another room, a guest room, and a farmer was asleep with
his wife in a third building.
�First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them.
Then they entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then
they killed them. Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came
outside. When they saw him they shot him as well. He was outside.
That�s why his wife wasn�t killed.�
A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one
room and five were handcuffed before they were shot. �I saw their
school books covered in blood,� he said.
The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to
17. The guest was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster
said. He said that six of the students were at high school and two
were at primary school. He said that all the students were his
nephews. In Jalalabad, protesters set alight a US flag and an effigy
of President Obama after chanting �Death to Obama� and �Death to
foreign forces�. In Kabul, protesters held up banners showing
photographs of dead children alongside placards demanding �Foreign
troops leave Afghanistan� and �Stop killing us�.
Hekmatullah, 10, a protester, said: �We�re sick of Americans bombing
us.� Samiullah Miakhel, 60, a protester. said: �The Americans are just
all the time killing civilians.�