Anger over 'Taliban'
deaths By Abdul Samad Rohani
and S Mudassir Ali Shah
KABUL - Angry
protests have erupted in two Afghan provinces
against apparent killings of civilians in military
operations by coalition troops against Taliban
targets.
On Monday, thousands of furious
people took to the streets to denounce a
"cold-blooded massacre" of dozens of civilians by
coalition troops in the western province of Herat,
which has been relatively calm to date compared
with other areas where Taliban activity is high.
The previous day, protesters blocked the
busy Jalalabad-Torkham
Road
in Ghanikhel district, Nangarhar province, to
protest the killings of four rebel fighters and
two women by "American soldiers" who raided a
compound on a tip-off that the cell was plotting
suicide car-bomb attacks on coalition forces in
the coming weeks.
But the US-led coalition
insisted on Monday that the 136 killed by US and
Afghan forces in operations over three days in
Zerkoh Valley of Herat were Taliban insurgents,
including two local commanders.
Belying
the coalition assertion, a large number of angry
residents - demonstrating against the operations -
torched the Shindand district headquarters.
"Scores of civilians have perished in the clash
and the subsequent air strike," one demonstrator
told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Abdul Ghafoor
said many scared families had fled the locality in
the wake of the battle that lasted several hours.
He saw no justification for the coalition action
in an area "where there are no armed groups",
claiming the troops killed ordinary people without
ascertaining enemy locations.
Another
resident of Shindand, Abdul Manan, echoed
Ghafoor's version of the situation. The heavy
overnight bombardment continued until 10am, he
said, claiming war-weary residents were moving to
safer places after the fierce battles.
Police spokesman Colonel Noor Khan Nekzad,
confirming the large-scale demonstration against
foreign forces, said he had no information about
the burning of the district offices.
Meanwhile, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, speaking
for the insurgents, claimed Taliban fighters had
killed at least 28 foreign and Afghan troops in
the engagements besides setting fire to two
military vehicles.
However, the coalition
said the forces, tipped off about militant
activity in the Zerkoh Valley, launched an attack
on Taliban positions with mortar, small-arms and
rocket-propelled-grenade fire.
Later,
Afghan National Army (ANA) and coalition
reinforcements joined the troops, who radioed for
close air support to target the rebel positions.
An aircraft dropped multiple munitions on several
enemy targets, the coalition said.
In a
statement issued from the Bagram airfield, the
coalition said that as Taliban fighters tried to
flee, an AC-130 gunship engaged and killed 26
fighters on both sides of the river valley.
"A total of seven enemy positions were
destroyed and 87 Taliban fighters killed during a
14-hour engagement," the statement said of the
battle that took place 60 kilometers south of
Shindand on Sunday.
Another 49 guerrillas,
including two local Taliban commanders, were
killed two days earlier by a combination of
small-arms fire and close air support near the
Parmakan village in the same valley.
The
clash was triggered by a rebel attack on a joint
patrol of Afghan police and US Special Forces in
the area, the coalition said. One US soldier was
also killed in the engagement.
"Taliban
fighters are no match for ANA and coalition
forces," said Army Major Chris Belcher, Combined
Joint Task Force-82 spokesman. "We will intensify
our operations to rid Afghanistan of all Taliban
and foreign fighters who harm innocent Afghan
civilians and threaten the government of
Afghanistan."
The almost daily gun battles
between resurgent Taliban and coalition troops
trying to prop up the government of Afghan
President Hamid Karzai have claimed at least 4,000
civilian lives since 2006.
Reports from
Helmand province on Sunday confirmed that six
children and women were killed as North Atlantic
Treaty Organization warplanes bombarded houses in
the Kharko area of Garmser district. But police
denied the pounding of civilian targets in the air
strike.
Ghulam Shah, a resident of Kharko,
told Pajhwok Afghan News all the dead were
ordinary villagers with no links to any militant
group. The area was pounded after Taliban gunmen
attacked a coalition convoy, he said.
Protesters in Nangarhar province alleged
that soldiers shot dead in cold blood six people,
including two women, in the dawn raid. Coffins of
the slain lay on the roadside during the noisy
protest, a local tribal elder told Pajhwok Afghan
News.
But the coalition said in a
statement that the six people were killed in
retaliatory fire from the raiding party. After
being fired on, the forces retaliated, killing
four militants, an adult woman and a teenage girl,
it said.
(Released under agreement with
Pajhwok Afghan News)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
