Share this on:
U.S. 'heartbroken' over Afghan killings, Obama says
From Sara Sidner, CNN
March 14, 2012 -- Updated 0035 GMT (0835 HKT)
Obama: Afghan killings 'outrageous'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan forces came under fire Tuesday during a funeral for victims of a weekend rampage blamed on a U.S. soldier, while protesters angered by the killings blocked a major highway in the country's southeast.
The U.S. military says the Army sergeant blamed for the killings acted alone. Two senior military officials told CNN that images from security cameras around his outpost showed the suspect leaving the base alone and returning alone.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said American officials were "heartbroken" by the deaths but have no plans to change course in the decade-old war in Afghanistan.
Sunday's predawn rampage, which left nine children, three women and four men dead in two villages in rural Kandahar province, has added to the strain between Washington and Kabul. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that the killings "caused great pain for the people of Afghanistan," Taliban insurgents have vowed to avenge the killings, and gunshots and grenades echoed in the distance as the victims were buried Tuesday.
"While we were in the village of Alokozai for a funeral, praying for a martyr killed in the massacre, we heard close-range, small-arms fire, followed by two rocket-propelled grenades," said Haji Agha Lali, a member of the Kandahar provincial council. "According to my information, two to three Afghan security forces have been injured."
Lali said high-level Afghan officials, including Karzai's brother, a minister and a deputy minister, were attending the funeral when the attacks took place. The targets appeared to be Afghan investigators collecting evidence in the neighboring village of Najibian, where the remaining victims died.
The Taliban have battled U.S. and NATO troops, as well as Afghan government forces, since the 2001 invasion after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. After Sunday's killings, they described U.S. troops as "sick-minded American savages." In a new statement Tuesday, they said they would take revenge "by killing and beheading Americans anywhere in the country."
A protest in Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan, drew hundreds of people Tuesday, with demonstrators blocking the highway to Kabul, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zaii Abdulzai said. The highway was reopened later Tuesday.
The still-unidentified soldier blamed for the attack has yet to be charged. He turned himself in to his fellow Americans after the killings and could face the death penalty, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. Afghanistan's parliament has demanded a public trial for the suspect, but U.S. officials said they will handle the investigation and prosecution themselves.
Gen. John Allen, the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Monday that the suspect is believed to have acted "as an individual." He has invoked his right to remain silent and was not cooperating with investigators, U.S. and ISAF officials have told CNN on condition of anonymity.
The officials have described the suspect as a staff sergeant from an infantry unit assigned to support Special Forces troops in Kandahar province, the Taliban heartland and a leading focus of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Military authorities have presented a determination of probable cause to allow them to keep the sergeant in detention, an ISAF offficial told CNN.
【免费咨询报名电话：010-6801 7975】
咨询报名MSN:xueliedu@hotmail.com
试一试网上报名
咨询报名QQ：
| 1505847972 | 1256358232 | 1363884583 | 1902839745 | 800072298 | 754854002 |
| 中专升大专 | 中专升本科 | 高升专 | 高升本 | 专升本 | 自考 |
报名咨询在线MSN：
