U.S. Troops Kill 5 on Afghan Bus, Protest Follows

‘You’re making enemies,’ Kandahar mayor says of Americans

Afghans gather at right, burning tires and shouting “Death to America” after U.S. troops fired on a bus in Kandahar on Monday, April 12, 2010. (Photo credit: Allauddin Khan / AP)

By KathyGannon and Noor Khan

April 12, 2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — U.S. troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians Monday, killing five people, officials said, setting off anti-American protests in a key southern city where coalition forces hope to rally the public for a coming offensive against the Taliban. …

The pre-dawn shooting in Kandahar province’s Zhari district wounded another 17 people. International forces took 12 of the wounded to a military hospital. …

Within hours of the shooting, scores of Afghans had blocked the main highway out of Kandahar with burning tires, chanting “Death to America,” and calling for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, himself a Kandahar native.

“The Americans are constantly killing our civilians and the government is not demanding an explanation,” said resident Mohammad Razaq. “We demand justice from the Karzai government and the punishment of those soldiers responsible.” …

Video: ‘Death to America’ chants

U.S. bus attack angers Afghans (NBC Nightly News, April 12, 2010) — U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Monday opened fire on a bus carrying civilians, killing at least five and inflaming anti-American sentiment in the region just as a major new offensive is about to get underway. (02:12)

NATO is gearing up for a long-anticipated allied operation to push the Taliban out of Kandahar, from which the hardline Islamist movement emerged as a political and military force in the 1990s.

The city’s mayor said Monday’s shootings would likely deal a major setback to coalition hopes of winning popular support for that upcoming offensive.

“I’ve told the Americans and NATO that people are very angry about these kinds of attacks,” Gulam Hamidi told The Associated Press. “I’ve told them ‘You’re making enemies.'”

The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has issued strict orders to his troops to try to reduce civilian casualties. But they still occur regularly, unleashing raw emotions that highlight a growing impatience with coalition forces’ inability to secure the nation.

Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, was the birthplace of the Taliban regime ousted in 2001 and insurgents remain active there despite a heavy presence of foreign forces. Securing it is key to the U.S. military and NATO’s aim of turning around the more than eight-year war, but anger stirred by civilian deaths threatens to undercut local support for the central government in Kabul.

More than 80,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, many of them deployed to volatile southern provinces including Kandahar. …

Video Anti-American unrest (April 12, 2010) — Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff discusses tensions in Afghanistan. Andrea Mitchell Reports. (03:01)

With troop levels rising amid heightened violence, at least 2,412 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting last year, an increase of 14 percent from 2008, according to the United Nations. The U.N. attributed 67 percent of those deaths to insurgents who use ambushes, assassinations and roadside bombs to spread terror, undermine development and punish Afghans seen as cooperating with foreign forces and the Karzai government.

NATO earlier this month confirmed that international troops were responsible for the deaths of five people, including three women, killed Feb. 12 in Gardez, south of Kabul. An Afghan government report on the incident claims U.S. special forces had mistaken their targets and later sought to cover up the killings by digging bullets out of bodies, according to investigators who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — April 12, 2009

A view of destruction of NATO supplies near Peshawar, Pakistan, in April  2009. Militants using guns and gasoline bombs attacked a terminal in northwest Pakistan holding supplies bound for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. (Photo credit: Mohammad Sajjad / AP)

Easter Attack on U.S. Supply Line

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that about 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan along a key supply route used by U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.