Karzai slams Afghan deaths US force raids

Kabul, Mar 5: Afghan President Hamid Karzai today condemned the deaths of 10 civilians shot by U S troops after an attack on their convoy over the weekend in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Nine more civilians -- five women, three children and an old man -- were killed in an overnight air strike by Western troops in Nijrab district of Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, the deputy provincial governor said today.

The raid followed a rocket attack on a US base, Deputy Governor Sayed Dawood Hashimi said.

Both NATO and the US-led coalition force which also operates in the area said they were investigating.

In the first incident, the U S military said its troops had faced a ''complex'' Taliban ambush involving a suicide attack and militant gunfire in a populated area outside Jalalabad yesterday.

It said the soldiers had fired in self-defence and 16 civilians had been killed in the suicide attack and subsequent firing.

No provincial or central government official has confirmed the U S military's account that the convoy came under rebel gunfire. Analysts say killing of civilians by NATO and U S troops is sapping public support for the foreign mission here.

Two provincial government officials said yesterday that 10 civilians had been killed and more than 25 wounded as the US soldiers fled the site of the attack.

''Karzai strongly condemned the incident that took place,'' the palace said in a statement.

Karzai has ordered an inquiry, but previous such investigations by NATO and the Afghan government have done nothing more than confirm witness accounts that those killed were civilians.

Despite hundreds of civilian deaths, no foreign soldier has ever been found guilty.

The Taliban have threatened an offensive in coming weeks after the bloodiest year since their 2001 overthrow. More than 4,000 people died in 2006, a quarter of them civilians. Dozens of those were killed by foreign troops, mainly in air raids.

Reuters