US troops massacre 16 Afghan civilians

US troops massacre 16 Afghan civilians

(new-power.org)

US troops have massacred 16 civilians, including women and children, in Afghanistan. The massacre began around 3 am in two villages in Panjwai district, a rural suburb of Kandahar and a traditional Taliban stronghold. The villages — Balandi and Alkozai — are about 500 yards (meters) from a US base. US troops entered three houses and opened fire on families, said a village resident of Alkozai, Abdul Baqi:

“When it was happening in the middle of the night, we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again.”

The mainstream media reports that:

“An American soldier opened fire on villagers near his base in southern Afghanistan Sunday and killed 16 civilians, according to President Hamid Karzai, who called it an ‘assassination’ and furiously demanded an explanation from Washington. Nine children and three women were among the dead.

The killing spree deepened a crisis between U.S. forces and their Afghan hosts over Americans burning Muslim holy books on a base in Afghanistan last month. The Quran burnings sparked weeks of violent protests and attacks that left some 30 dead. Six U.S. service members have been killed by their Afghan colleagues since the burnings came to light, and the violence had just started to calm down.”

Even Hamid Karzai, a US puppet has been forced to condemn the massacre:

“This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven.”

The imperialists have turned Afghanistan into a killing field for decades. The Soviets and Americans, along with their local agents and reactionaries, have brutalized the population there for decades. The brutality continues today. Afghanistan is occupied. The people have every right to resist. These killings will create further anti-American feeling in Afghanistan, especially after US personnel were found burning Korans.  These killings reveal the brutality of the US and its agents. These deaths will help fuel the struggle against imperialism there. Let us hope for a quick defeat to US imperialism.