More Afghan civilians said killed in U.S.-led raid
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday May 4, 9:36 PM Reuters
*
More Afghan civilians said killed in U.S.-led raid*
By Saeed Ali Achakzai
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least 13 civilians were killed
in a bombing raid by U.S.-led forces battling the Taliban, an Afghan
official said on Friday, bringing to 70 the number of such deaths
reported this week.
The rising toll of civilian casualties will put further pressure on
President Hamid Karzai, who warned this week of serious consequences for
all if the bloodshed did not stop.
The civilians were killed in bombing on Tuesday night in the Maroof
district of southern Kandahar province, near the border with Pakistan,
said Janan Gulzai a provincial assembly member.
"I saw all the victims are civilians," Gulzai who was a member of a
government team investigating the incident, told Reuters.
"We cannot accept the killing of Afghan civilians by anyone."
The civilians were travelling in three cars along the same stretch of
road as coalition troops near the town of Spin Boldak when the troops
came under Taliban fire, said Ghulam Farooq, a resident of the area.
The 13 civilians were killed when coalition warplanes were summoned to
bomb the area while the Taliban escaped, he said.
A spokesman for the U.S. military said he had no information about the
report and would check.
Protesters -- angry over civilian deaths reported in the western
province of Herat and in the east of the country -- called this week on
Karzai to quit, saying he was powerless to stop the killing.
Several hundred people staged another anti-U.S. and anti-Karzai protest
on Friday over the civilian deaths in the east, residents said.
They briefly blocked a road where a convoy of the coalition forces was
passing, but police dispersed the crowd and the protest ended peacefully.
The deaths in Herat, an area not known as a Taliban stronghold, prompted
many Afghans to reject initial reports from U.S.-led coalition forces
that the dead were 136 Taliban.
The Western military are inquiring into that incident, where Afghan
officials say 51 civilians were killed.
While the protests over civilian casualties have been mainly small,
government officials, NATO and analysts all warn that a steady stream of
such deaths will inevitably erode support for Karzai and the war against
the Taliban, who were driven from power in 2001.
Popular anger over civilian deaths caused by Western troops'
anti-militant operations has been directed at Karzai, who is already
facing criticism over a lack of development, rampant corruption and this
year's surge in violence.