Text Fwd: U.S. Troops Fire On Thousands Of Protesters Outside Bagram Base

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Stop NATO

Morning Star (Britain)
US fires on civilian Bagram protest
Tuesday 24 August 2010
by Tom Mellen

US troops fired on thousands of Afghan civilians as they protested outside the massive US military base at Bagram on Monday.

A provincial police official said that at least one civilian was killed in the incident, but Nato asserted that no civilians had been killed or injured.

The Western military alliance claimed that soldiers had only fired "warning shots" to disperse residents after they surrounded a military patrol and attacked vehicles outside the sprawling facility with rocks and iron bars.

But Parwan province deputy police chief General Faqir Ahmad was adamant that one civilian had been killed - although he said he could not be sure who fired the fatal bullet.

Gen Ahmad said that the Nato shooting had served to enrage the crowd, which he put at about 2,000 people.

He said that some responded by using rocks and sticks to attack police and the head of the district government, Kabir Ahmad, who had tried to calm the situation.

He reported that Mr Ahmad and a police officer had sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Gen Ahmad went on to say that the rally had been triggered by the arrest of a religious teacher suspected of taking part in a rocket attack on occupation forces.

Also on Monday, officials and residents of Baghlan province in the north of the country accused Nato troops of killing eight civilians during a pre-dawn raid.

Mohammed Ismail, the governor of the Talah wa Barfak District, said that foreign troops broke into a district house at 2am and killed eight civilians, injured 12 and took nine prisoners.

The province's governor Munchi Abdul Majid confirmed the attack but could not provide details.
Nato spokesman Major Michael Johnson said that he was unaware of any such attack.

Meanwhile the Taliban has reportedly attacked and torched a Nato convoy carrying fuel and materiel to US troops in the south.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack on the lorries destined for Helmand and alleged that the assault prompted US forces to evacuate their military base in Sangin.

Nato denied the Taliban's claims and boasted that US-led troops had killed 40 militants in offensives this week in eastern Afghanistan.

Monday's clash between locals and occupation forces outside the Bagram base is the second such incident in 10 days.

On August 15 hundreds of residents participated in a militant demonstration in protest at the construction of military facilities on land owned by villagers.

Protesters threw "baseball-size rocks" at troops as they escorted a mercenary to the base, according to Nato.

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Ynet News
Reuters
August 25, 2010

Protesters try to storm NATO base in Afghan north

Thousands of Afghans tried to storm a NATO-led base in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday after allegations a member of the foreign force had shot and killed an Afghan soldier, residents said.

Few details about the initial shooting were available but residents said protesters had set fire to one part of the base run by Spanish troops in Qalay-e Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis province near the border with Turkmenistan.
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