Protests after US troops kill 16 Afghans

Thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan yesterday after US forces were involved in a panicked shooting which left 16 civilians dead and 23 injured.

Local people as well as a number of Afghan officials accused the American marines of opening fire indiscriminately following a suicide bomb attack on their convoy in Nangarhar province.

With protests continuing to grow, and the police coming under attack from stone- throwing crowds, the US military maintained that the casualties were the victims of a "complex ambush" in which gunmen had carried out a synchronised attack following the blast in which a marine was injured.

But Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar district, where the deaths took place, insisted that they "treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker" as they attempted to speed away from the scene of the explosion.

Abdul Ghafour and Noor Agha Zwak, speaking on behalf of the Nangarhar police and government, and Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Kabul, also claimed the deaths and injuries were due to American fire.

Four months ago, British Royal Marines were also accused of shooting bystanders after their convoy had been hit by a roadside bomb in Kandahar. On that occasion the British authorities maintained that most of those shot had been trying to prevent the convoy from leaving the scene.

The killings in Nangarhar came just a few days after a suicide bombing at Bagram airbase, near Kabul, during a visit by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, killing nine people.

Both the Taliban and Nato forces in Afghanistan had said that a comparative lull in fighting during the winter would be followed by renewed campaigning in the spring.

Yesterday, as crowds blocked roads shouting "death to America" and "death to Karzai", some of those who were injured related their version of what had happened.

"They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway," said 38-year-old Tur Gul, who was shot twice in his right hand. "They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot." Some said that they were fired upon although they took care to get out of the way of the departing convoy.

"We parked our vehicle, but when they passed us, they still opened fire on our vehicle," said 15-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, who was hit by two bullets, in his left arm and his right ear, at a local hospital.

Ahmed Najib, 23, lying in the next bed, was hit by a bullet in his right shoulder. He said: "One American was in the first vehicle, shouting to stop on the side of the road, and we stopped. The first vehicle did not fire on us, but the second opened fire on our car. My two-year-old brother was grazed on the cheek by a bullet."

The US Marines involved in the shooting are part of a force operating along the Pakistani border under a separate command from the main Nato force in the country. The convoy was passing through the highway near the provincial capital, Jalalabad, when a minibus packed with explosives was detonated.

The military convoy subsequently came under fire from several directions. Major William Mitchell, a spokesman, said: "We certainly believe it's possible that the incoming fire from the ambush was wholly or partly responsible for the civilian casualties."

Ajmel Pardus, the provincial health chief, said the initial number of those killed was eight, but others had later died from their injuries. He added that women and children were among those wounded.

Yesterday's violence came at a tense time in Nangarhar, with a number of protests against the opium poppy eradication programme now under way. Nato and Afghan government officials have said the Taliban are exploiting anger among local farmers to fuel the insurgency.

Last night Hezb-e-Islami, a group linked to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the American convoy and identified the bomber as Haji Ihsanullah.