Taliban vows revenge for killings by US soldier
Monday, March 12, 2012
Taliban vows revenge for killings by U.S. soldier
By: Ernesto Londoño, Javed Hamdard and William Branigrin,
Washington Post
KABUL - The Taliban vowed Monday to take revenge for the killing
of at least 16 Afghan civilians by a rogue American soldier, and
the nation's parliament said people "have run out of patience" with
foreign forces.
In protesting the killings, some Afghan lawmakers demanded that
the U.S. soldier in custody be tried in an Afghan court, the latest
sign that the incident could mark an adverse turning point in the
deteriorating relationship between Kabul and Washington.
The radical Islamist Taliban blamed "sick-minded American
savages" for the attack, in which the U.S. soldier walked off his
base in a remote southern Afghan village shortly before dawn Sunday
and opened fire on civilians inside their homes. Afghan officials
said at least 16 people were killed, including nine children. The
soldier turned himself in to U.S. military authorities upon
returning to the base.
In a statement on its Web site, the Taliban called the killings
a "blood-soaked and inhumane crime" and said it would "take revenge
from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single
martyr." The statement appeared to anticipate that U.S. officials
would seek to portray the killer as a mentally ill soldier.
"If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally-ill,
then this testifies to yet to yet another moral transgression by
the American military because they are arming lunatics in
Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenseless Afghans
without giving a second thought," the statement said.
U.S. officials said the shooter acted alone. But some Afghan
villagers and local officials claimed that more than one attacker
carried out the killings, and the Taliban seized on that version to
tar U.S. forces in general.
In Washington, a U.S. military official said the suspect is a
38-year-old Army staff sergeant, whose unit is from Joint Base
Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and that he was part of a
village stability operation working in Kandahar province. The
official said the soldier was on his first tour of duty on
Afghanistan, following multiple assignments to Iraq.
National Public Radio reported Monday that the soldier is
married, with two children, and was deployed with a unit that was
supporting U.S. Special Forces around Kandahar.
In a statement, the Afghan parliament condemned the killings.
"Once again Afghans have run out of patience with the arbitrary
actions of foreign forces," it said.
Even Afghan officials who have been staunch U.S. allies saw
Sunday's fatal shootings in the Panjwai district of Kandahar as an
unfathomable act. It comes on the heels of a cascade of blunders
and missteps that have cast a pall on the prospect of a dignified
American exit.
"If things keep going in this direction, we are really at the
end of the road," said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament who
heads the defense committee and has had strong relationships with
Western officials. "The trust between our governments is trashed on
both sides."
Barakzai was among the lawmakers who said the Afghan government
would settle for nothing less than a prompt trial for the American
suspect in an Afghan court or an international tribunal.
"Afghan blood cannot be spilled in vain," she said. "We really
need a proper, very official court for that guy. We really, really
need it."
The shootings appeared to mark the deadliest intentional attack
on civilians by a U.S. soldier in the decade-long Afghanistan war.
Although U.S. officials promptly detained the suspect, the incident
seemed certain to stoke anti-American sentiment at a time of
growing unease about the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan
and increasing pessimism among Americans about the U.S. mission
here.
Coming as Afghan rage over the burning of Korans by U.S.
soldiers last month was beginning to taper off, the killings Sunday
threatened to spark a new crisis in the strained relationship
between the United States and Afghanistan. The two nations are in
the midst of contentious negotiations over an agreement that could
extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country beyond 2014.
The incident also provided fresh fodder to critics of the Obama
administration's Afghanistan strategy who are trying to portray the
2009 troop surge as a failed attempt to secure a dignified
exit.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the shootings an
"assassination" and demanded an explanation from U.S.
officials.
President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called
Karzai on Sunday to discuss the incident. Obama expressed "shock
and sadness" and vowed to "hold fully accountable anyone
responsible" for the killings, the White House said in a
statement.
"This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the
exceptional character of our military and the respect that the
United States has for the people of Afghanistan," Obama said.
Although the Taliban was quick to try to capitalize on outrage
over the killings, the group and other insurgents have been
responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan
over the years, according to the United Nations. Of 3,021
documented civilian deaths last year, 77 percent were caused by
insurgents, largely through the increased used of makeshift
explosives and suicide bombings, the U.N. report said.
According to figures in the report issued last month, 4,369
civilians were killed by insurgents in 2010 and 2011, compared to
837 killed over that period by Afghan government and NATO forces.
An additional 605 civilian deaths over the two years could not be
attributed, the report said.
U.S. officials shed no light on the motive or state of mind of
the shooter in Sunday's rampage.
"It appears he walked off post and later returned and turned
himself in," said Lt. Cmdr. James Williams, a military
spokesman.
U.S. military officials stressed that the shooting was carried
out by a lone, rogue soldier, differentiating it from past
instances in which civilians were killed accidentally during
military operations.
But the shooting left American soldiers on edge, bracing for
retaliatory attacks.
"My fear is that those Afghans in the region that were
indifferent to either side of this conflict will now, at least as a
temporary emotional reaction, become active insurgents," said a
U.S. Army officer based in Kandahar, speaking on the condition of
anonymity to express his fears candidly.
'Callous acts'
A statement released by Karzai's office recounted a conversation
the Afghan president had with a relative of one of the victims.
"You have asked the Americans again and again to avoid civilian
casualties, but again the Americans are killing innocent people,"
the statement quoted the relative as having said.
Fazal Mohammad Esaqzai, deputy chief of the Kandahar provincial
council, said enraged villagers loaded the bodies into cars and
drove to the entrance of the nearby U.S. base to demand
answers.
"They were very angry," said Esaqzai, who was part of an
investigative delegation that visited the villages where the
shootings occurred. "They wanted to do something to take
revenge."
Esaqzai, who said he saw 16 bodies, said villagers told him that
around midnight, 11 people - three women, four children ranging in
age from 6 to 9, and four men - were executed inside the home of a
village elder.
"They entered the room where the women and children were
sleeping, and they were all shot in the head," Esaqzai said, adding
that he was doubtful of the U.S. account suggesting that the
killings were the work of a lone gunman. "They were all shot in the
head."
About an hour later, residents in a nearby village heard
gunshots, and they later discovered the corpses of five men inside
two houses located near each other, Esaqzai said.
Karzai's statement said nine of the 16 victims were children. In
addition, at least five people wounded in the incident were being
treated at a U.S. military medical facility.
Afghan and American officials braced for a larger outcry later
in the week.
"I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts," Lt.
Gen. Adrian J. Bradshaw, the deputy commander of the international
coalition in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "They were in no way
part of authorized military activity."
Gen. John R. Allen, the top U.S. military commander in
Afghanistan, pledged a thorough investigation and full cooperation
with Afghan authorities.
The Taliban characterized the incident as a "massacre" committed
during the course of a night raid by American and Afghan forces.
"The so-called American peace keepers have once again quenched
their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians," the
Taliban statement said.
Panjwai, southwest of Kandahar city, has been one of the most
challenging battlegrounds for international forces. The area was
the cradle of the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, and the
militant group has fought hard to maintain sway over villages
there.
Wresting Kandahar province from Taliban control was one of the
chief objectives of Obama's 2009 troop surge. U.S. military
officials say they have been largely successful in restoring a
semblance of Afghan government control in areas once commanded by
the Taliban. But as the footprint of foreign troops starts to
shrink in the south, many Afghans fear that the Taliban will regain
lost ground.
Anger over the Koran burnings last month sparked nationwide
riots and was cited as motivation for at least some of the fatal
attacks on six U.S. military personnel. But reaction to the
incineration of the holy books - which U.S. officials said was
accidental - was relatively muted in the south.
Strains on partnership
The death toll Sunday was far higher than in the notorious
string of killings carried out in 2010 by a rogue U.S. Army platoon
that became known as the "kill team." The slaying of at least three
men in Kandahar's Maywand district became one of the biggest
scandals of the war, after investigators found that soldiers had
kept body parts as trophies and passed off unarmed victims as
insurgents.
Afghans were also angered this year when a video showing Marines
urinating on the bodies of suspected insurgents was posted
online.
The partnership between Karzai's government and the Obama
administration has been sorely tested in recent weeks by the Koran
burnings, the killings of U.S. troops by their Afghan partners and
other issues. Although the problems have led to increased calls by
some American lawmakers for a speedier withdrawal, U.S. military
officials said they were determined to absorb the political fallout
and public anger that have been generated.
"We're fully cognizant that even things that are unrelated can
have an impact," added a senior U.S. defense official in
Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss
internal deliberations. "But we see no demonstrable effect on our
operations or on our broader ability to work with our Afghan
partners."