US Soldier Kills Up to 16 Afghan Civilians
A U.S. service member who opened fire on Afghan civilians in Kandahar province entered their homes in the middle of the night and carried out the attack, Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid told Reuters on Sunday. The service member entered three homes, killing a total of 16 people, he said.
Five were wounded in the incident, said Khalid, who is investigating the incident.
“It was a shooting incident involving multiple civilians wounded,” NATO spokesman Captain Brockhoff said earlier. Brockhoff would not say how many civilians had been killed or injured.
Kandahar officials told NBC News that that 15 had been killed or wounded in the attack, with about half of those believed to be fatalities. An Associated Press photographer reported that he had seen the bodies of at least 15 people who villagers alleged were killed by the American soldier. Al Jazeera English put the number of civilians slain at 17.
There was no explanation for the differing death tolls.
Tribal leaders told the BBC that women and children and men were among the dead.
More than one shooter?
The BBC reported that a soldier shot the civilians after walking off his base, then surrendered to U.S. military authorities. The BBC and other reported that the soldier was thought to have suffered a breakdown.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s defense ministry told Reuters that “coalition forces” killed civilians in the shooting spree. NATO did not immediately comment on the report, which implied that there had been more than one attacker.
American and NATO officials apologized for Sunday’s shootings.
The American Embassy in Kabul said in a statement that it was “saddened by this violent act against our Afghan friends.”
“The United States extends its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of today’s tragic shooting incident in Kandahar province,” the statement said. “We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice.”
NATO, meanwhile, called the attack “appalling” and said it was in no way part of its authorized activities.
“An investigation is already underway and every effort will be made to establish the facts and hold anyone responsible to account,” deputy commander of the NATO-ledo International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw said in a statement.
Civilian casualties have been a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai’s government and U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
“U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, in cooperation with Afghan authorities, will investigate this incident,” NATO said.
Anti-American sentiment is running high in Afghanistan and it may deepen if news of the shooting spreads.
Anger gripped the country after U.S. soldiers burned a large number of copies of the Koran at a NATO base last month. NATO said it was a tragic blunder.
Thirty people were killed in protests and Afghan forces turned their weapons on U.S. soldiers, killing six.