Afghan villagers protest US air strike deaths

Karachi News.Net
Saturday 23rd August, 2008

Afghan villagers have launched protests against all allied forces after claims that 76 civilians, most of them children, were killed in US-led air strikes against Taliban rebels.

The US military previously said that only 30 militant fighters had been killed in the strikes, but later admitted it was launching investigations into civilian deaths.

About 250 villagers gathered in the angry demonstration on Saturday night, hurling stones at Afghan troops.

The police chief for western Afghanistan, General Akram Yawar, said his officers had fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd.

Two people were wounded after police were forced back into their compound.

The protests centred around an incident in the village of Azizabad, about 120 kilometres south of Herat city, an area which is considered a stronghold of Taliban and other militants.

If the death toll from the new incident is confirmed it would be one of the highest for civilians in Afghanistan.

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