Afghan Protesters Clash With Police After NATO Raid

Naqeeb Ahmed/European Pressphoto Agency
Afghans protested following an overnight NATO raid they said killed four civilians in Taliqan on Wednesday.

By RAY RIVERA and SANGAR RAHIMI

Published: May 18, 2011

• • Digg
  • Permalink

KABUL, Afghanistan — A normally peaceful northern city erupted in violence Wednesday, as thousands of protesters clashed with security forces after a NATO night raid that local officials claim killed four civilians. NATO defended the night operation and said the four people who were killed, two of them women, were armed insurgents who fired on its troops.




At least a dozen people were killed Wednesday as protesters armed with Kalashnikov rifles, axes, grenades and petrol bombs battled with police on the streets of Taliqan, the capital of Takhar Province, in the northeast, then assaulted a small NATO base on the city’s outskirts, local officials and witnesses said.
The protesters chanted “death to Americans” and “death to Karzai,” referring to President Hamid Karzai, as they hurled fire bombs and rocks at the German-run NATO outpost, officials said. Some also fired guns. Smoke rising from the base could be seen across the city.
Security forces brought the riot under control after several hours, but not before dozens of people, including women and children, had been injured or killed. Dr. Hassan Baseej, head of the provincial health department, said that the provincial hospital had received 12 dead and 80 wounded by early afternoon and that more were coming.
Two German soldiers and three Afghan guards were also wounded in the attack, said Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the provincial governor. It was not immediately known whether NATO forces were involved in trying to subdue the protesters, or opened fire on them.
Governor Taqwa condemned the NATO raid that precipitated the riot but also blamed Taliban agents for stirring up the crowd of about 3,000 to 4,000 people in what was intended to be a peaceful demonstration.
“This tragedy is much bigger than the one done last night by coalition forces,” he said, promising to find the people who incited the violence.
At one point, the protesters carried the bodies of the four people killed in the raid through the streets, the governor said. They were buried later in the day. According to witnesses, the mob grew infuriated when a protester paraded a 10-year-old girl before it.
“This is the only remaining member of the family killed by foreigners last night,” the protester announced.
Night raids have been a bitter source of tension between NATO and Afghan officials, including Mr. Karzai, who has said they frequently lead to civilian casualties and deepen distrust in the government and NATO forces.
“With all the repeated warnings that have been given by the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in regards to the prevention of these willful operations by NATO forces, it seems these types of operations have not been stopped,” Mr. Karzai’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
In its own statement, NATO said the combined Afghan and coalition raid was aimed at a man accused of providing weapons and explosives to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — an group linked to Al Qaeda that has been responsible for numerous attacks in northern Afghanistan.
The team was preparing to search a family compound when a woman wearing an ammunition rack and carrying an AK-47 pointed the rifle at the team and, after ignoring several commands to drop it, was killed, the statement said. The second woman was killed shortly afterward when she rushed out of the compound and pointed a pistol at coalition forces, the statement said.
It added that a suicide vest rigged with 30 millimeter rounds and a detonation chord were found in a search of the compound. Though rare, women have been known to join insurgent fighting forces and have acted as suicide bombers.
In addition to the four people killed, two other suspected insurgents were detained.
But local officials insisted that the four who were killed were not insurgents.
“It was a wrong operation based on wrong intelligence information,” said Shah Jahan Noori, the police chief of Takhar Province. “These kinds of operations are increasing the gap between the people and the government.”
An acquaintance of one of the men killed said he was a religious scholar and ran a tailoring shop in the city. “He has nothing to do with the Taliban or anyone else,” said the acquaintance, Asadullah, 38, a tailor who like many Afghans uses only one name.
The city of about 200,000 has been largely peaceful but Takhar Province, which borders Tajikistan, is one of several northern provinces that, according to NATO, has seen increased activity by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. But this is not the first time government officials have accused NATO of misidentifying members of the movement, underscoring the difficulties of identifying Afghan insurgents.
The most notable incident occurred in September when NATO attacked the convoy of a candidate for Parliament who was campaigning in Takhar with his uncle and several campaign workers. His uncle was killed along with at least nine others.
NATO forces maintain that the candidate’s uncle was a Taliban deputy shadow governor of Takhar and that they are sure of his identity. However, Mr. Karzai and local officials in Takhar said that the target was not a Taliban deputy shadow governor and that those killed were civilians. An exhaustive report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based research organization, found that the man who was targeted had been living peacefully in Kabul for more than two years and was well known there.
The man who was the real Taliban leader in Takhar Province was located by the Afghanistan Analysts Network in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where a colleague of the author of the report interviewed him. However, NATO has continued to maintain that it had the right person.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, a suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a minibus carrying Afghan National Police trainers in the Beshud district in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Initial accounts said the attack killed 6 to 13 people and wounded 21. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Kabul, and employees of The New York Times from Taliqan and eastern Afghanistan.

Qaar e afghan, Rahm e uzbak.

now the NATO is in trouble haha.

the whole Afghan nation is rising up. Its not just Pashtuns anymore. All Muslims now.

The Uzbeks appear to have awoken from their slumber.

? sa Tajub ghunday na da ? Aghyaro bya Goray Wahal wakray ?

Wadarega **** Ghundal.

This is hypocrisy.

They are talking about the killing of 4...not like some jihadist named Ghundal

Afghans protest US killing of civilians
Wed May 18, 2011 5:51AM
Share | Email | Print

Villagers burn a US flag during a protest against NATO raids at Surkhrod district, in Nangarhar province, May 14, 2010.
Afghan people have taken to the streets to protest at the killing of four civilians by US-led forces in Takhar province -- the latest in a series of foreign raids which have led to the death of civilians.


The foreign forces bombed a house in Taloqan city in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday night, killing four civilians, including two women, a Press TV correspondent reported Wednesday.

Following the incident, angry Afghans took to the streets to protest against the killing of civilians by the US-led troops.

Amid growing civilian casualties in the war-torn country, US-led troops on Sunday fired rockets at local residents in eastern Afghanistan, killing several women and children. The children were all girls, aged 8 to 15.

Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led foreign forces.

The loss of civilian lives at the hand of foreign forces has dramatically increased anti-American sentiments in the Asian country.

In May, a US-led airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar claimed the lives of nine children, aged between seven and nine, as they were collecting firewood.

Following the May incident, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, announced that Washington was “deeply sorry” for the airstrike, adding that “these deaths should never have happened.”

MSH/AKM/HRF

10 killed in Afghanistan anti-US rally
Wed May 18, 2011 7:5AM
Share | Email | Print

Anti-US protests in Afghanistan (file photo)
At least ten Afghan protesters have been killed and fifty others wounded during an anti-US rally in northern Afghanistan following the killings of four Afghan civilians by the US-led forces.


Afghan officials say more than 2,000 angry Afghans took part in the Wednesday protests, which turned violent, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The protests come following the killing of four civilians, including two women, by US-led forces in Taloqan city in Afghanistan's Takhar province on Tuesday night.

During Wednesday's protest in Taloqan, the demonstrators carried the bodies of the four dead in the city, chanting anti-US slogans.

The angry Afghan demonstrators were also calling on US-led foreign forces to leave the South Asian country.

In May, a US-led airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunar province killed nine children, aged between seven and nine, who were collecting firewood.

Following the May incident, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, announced that Washington was “deeply sorry” for the airstrike, adding that “these deaths should never have happened.”

Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of military operations by the foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have repeatedly condemned the persisting killing of civilians by US-led troops in the country and urged its immediate halt.

MSH/AKM/HRF

MSDresden...watch the language...you can't just insult other members. Stick to the topic. Manana