Nederland en Afghanistan 243

Afghan road blockades as innocents die

Friday 08 January 2010 by Tom Mellen Printable Email

Thousands gathering to protest after four Afghan children and a policeman were killed and scores wounded when an explosion tore through a group of local residents and soldiers observing a road-construction project

Thousands of Afghan civilians have blocked a key main road in Nangarhar province, shouting "death to America" and "death to Karzai" in protest at the latest alleged killings of children by Western occupation forces.

An estimated 5,000 protesters demonstrated along a road between Kabul and Jalalabad.

In the second rally against rising civilian casualties in just over a week, citizens set fire to an effigy of Barack Obama and chanted anti-US slogans.

On Wednesday, an explosion tore through a group of children gathered around occupation troops visiting a US-funded road project in Nangarhar.

Afghan officials said that four children and a policeman were killed and 80 civilians were injured, mostly children. Minutes after the blast, residents accused US forces of throwing a grenade into the crowd.

NATO said that two died in the explosion, while Afghan police suggested that the blast may have been caused by a passing police vehicle hitting a mine. The incident is under investigation.

Thursday's demonstration ended peacefully after Nangarhar University student Sardar Wali read out a resolution calling on the Western-backed government to expel occupation forces and take immediate action to stop the killing of civilians.

Wednesday's bloodshed is the latest in a string of cases in which Western soldiers have been blamed for civilian deaths.

On January 3, US troops dragged 10 Afghan civilians from their beds before shooting them at close range, according to an Afghan government probe.

Western military sources insisted that the victims, mostly adolescents, were all part of an "Afghan terror cell." That incident also sparked a demonstration in Jalalabad.

Zie: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/85335