Afghan street protests after US raid kills 2
By AMIR SHAH – Feb 1, 2009

KABUL (AP) — Hundreds of Afghans demonstrated Sunday against an overnight U.S. military raid that one villager said killed several civilians. The American military said its forces only killed two militants.

The angry protesters gathered on the main highway linking Kabul and Kandahar near the site of the raid, the latest to stir up Afghan ire against foreign forces accused of killing civilians.

Also Sunday, a suicide bomber in a car attacked a convoy of foreign troops in Kabul, wounding two Afghans, police said. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack.

The U.S. military said that its overnight raid in southeastern Ghazni province targeted a militant who coordinates attacks using roadside bombs and other weapons. It said coalition forces conducting the operation called out for all inhabitants to leave the targeted home, but several people barricaded themselves inside one building.

Coalition troops forced their way in and killed two militants, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Sayed Ismail Jahangir, a spokesman for Ghazni's governor, said local officials also reported two people killed in the raid. "We are now investigating. Who are these two killed, civilians or insurgents?" Jahangir said.

The Frontier Post

GHAZNI (PAN): Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Ghazni province blocked Kabul-Kandahar Highway for vehicular traffic on a second day of their protest against the killing of two locals by the US forces.

The US forces Sunday said in a statement that they killed two militants in Qarahbagh district of central Ghazni province. However, dozens of elders of Qarahbagh district said that they were two brothers and locals. The protestors brought bodies of the dead to Ghazni city to show the government that they were civilians.

An elder of the area, Qasim, Sunday told this news agency that the US military dogs had bitten five women and children in the area.

Hundreds of protesting people from Qarahbagh district blocked Kabul-Kandahar Highway for a second day on Monday. The protest demonstration emerged from Lewanai Bazaar and Krosai area and blocked the highway and burnt tyres on the road. The angry protestors chanted slogans against the US forces and President Hamid Karzai and asked for withdrawal of foreign forces from the country. "We are not protesting only against the killing of two locals, but the protest is against the killings of dozens of people by the US forces in Tagab, Laghman and Kandahar," Ahmad Khan, a protestor told this agency. He said that the forces were only killing civilians, but they had detained a number of national elders and elderly people. "Women and children were bitten by their dogs," Khan said.

A security official in Qarahbagh district also confirmed the blockade of the highway and said no untoward incident has so far been reported.

Hundreds of vehicles stranded on both sides of the blockade were awaiting opening of the road.