US forces accused of multiple rapes in Afghanistan

[Manzareh]

6 Dec 2012

The residents of a village in northern Afghanistan say American troopers raped several women during a night time raid in the rural community. The locals said that the incident took place in a village in the Chahar Bolak district of Afghanistan’s Balkh Province where US special forces carried out house-to-house searches, Afghanistan Information Network reported on Sunday. However, the name of the village was not disclosed as the villagers said they had been threatened by the commander of the US forces with “consequences” in case of complaining about the issue.

During the operation, the troopers separated the men and women of about 15 families and raped several women, the locals said.

Since the beginning of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, American troopers have on different occasions abused Afghans. Last month, a US trooper involved in the mass killing of Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan in March admitted to his crimes for the first time before a military court in the United States.

[Manzareh]

US forces raped two women in Kandahar carnage

17th March 2012

The Afghan parliamentary mission investigating the recent massacre of 16 civilians by US forces in Afghanistan says two women were raped during the deadly incident, Press TV reports.

Two members of the fact-finding mission, Hamidzi Lali and Shakiba Hashemi, told the general meeting of Afghanistan’s parliament on Saturday that the American troopers raped two Afghan women before starting the massacre. They said between 15 to 20 US soldiers were involved in the carnage.

This is while Washington claims that the 38-year-old Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who has just arrived in the US, was the only American military personnel responsible for the massacre.

Earlier on Friday, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai criticized the United States for not cooperating with the Afghan fact-finding team and said the killing of civilians by foreign forces in Afghanistan “has been going on for too long.”

On March 11, a group of US soldiers went from house to house in three villages in Kandahar’s Panjwaii district and gunned down Afghan civilians inside their homes, killing at least 16 people — mostly women and children — and injuring several others.

[Michin Khel]

So the rapes took place in kushan prince's balkh.