Protesters say NATO attack killed Afghan civilians

[May 14, 2010]  KABUL (AP) -- Hundreds of protesters brandished sticks, threw stones and burned an American flag Friday in eastern Afghanistan as they accused NATO forces of killing civilians in an overnight raid, but the alliance said eight insurgents were killed in the attack.

More than 500 people poured into the streets in the Surkh Rod district of Nangahar province to protest the raid by international forces that they claim killed at least nine civilians. A father and his four sons and four members of another family were killed in the NATO operation, said Mohammed Arish, a government administrator in Surkh Rod.

"They are farmers. They are innocent. They are not insurgents or militants," Arish told The Associated Press by phone.

However, NATO said the raid involving allied and Afghan forces targeted insurgents. Eight -- including a Taliban sub-commander -- were killed in a firefight, said alliance spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks.

Shanks revised NATO's original version of events, saying militants had not fired rocket-propelled grenades at coalition forces, as had been first believed. He said the alleged insurgents had fired machine guns.

Two other people were captured during the operation, and weapons and communications gear were confiscated at the targeted compound, Shanks said.

Locals paraded out several of the bodies during the demonstration.

Protesters blocked roads, hurled stones at a government office and sought to march toward the provincial capital of Jalalabad, before being turned back by police, Arish said. At least three people were injured during a clash with police, the Nangahar governor's office said.

Civilian deaths at the hands of NATO forces are highly sensitive. Public outrage over such deaths led Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the NATO commander, last year to tighten the rules on combat if civilians are at risk.

McChrystal has ordered allied forces to avoid night raids when possible and bring Afghan troops with them if they do enter homes after dark. But he stopped short of seeking a complete ban sought by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who discussed the issue in meetings this week with U.S. officials in Washington.

Also Friday, NATO said at least nine insurgents were killed the previous night during a pursuit of suspected militants in a rural area in the Tarnak Wa Jaldak district of eastern Zabul province.

NATO also confirmed an Afghan and allied operation in the morning a day earlier north of Qarabagh in southeastern Ghazni province left at least nearly a dozen militants dead. On Thursday, Ghazni police chief Khial Baz Sherzai said 14 militants had been killed in the area.

NATO spokesman Shanks said an American service member died in an insurgent attack in the east Friday, but he did not provide details. The alliance said another service member died a day earlier following in a roadside bombing in the restive south. NATO has not indicated the nationality of the service member, citing a policy of deferring to member nations.

With the deaths, NATO has lost 23 service members in Afghanistan this month.

Violence has been rising in the southern province of Kandahar. NATO and Afghan government forces are gearing up for a major operation in the region to root out Taliban insurgents in the region. NATO leaders believe the operation will be crucial to the outcome of the war.

[Associated Press; By AMIR SHAH]

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