Afghans Outraged After U.S. Attack

05/07/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS First Anti-American Demo in Kabul Since Taliban Collapse Last Year||Afghans Beginning to Wonder if U.S. Is At All Concerned About Afghan Lives||Karzai Now Wants U.S. to Closely Laison With Him in All Military Operations in the Country|| STORY: Having once seen Americans as liberators, a growing number of Afghans are beginning to question the U.S. military role in the country and wondering if the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban is taking too high a toll on civilians.(Read photo caption)

Sentiment has shifted on Kabul streets after civilian deaths, most recently Monday's U.S. air strike that Afghan authorities say killed 40 people and injured 100 others in Uruzgan province. The dead included members of a wedding party.

In the first anti-American protest in Kabul since the collapse of the Taliban last year, about 200 Afghans marched through the streets of Kabul on Thursday to express outrage over the attacks.

The demonstrators, blocked midmorning traffic in the dusty capital.

"We support coalition measures against the Taliban regime and al-Qaida, but we cannot tolerate more innocent victims in our country and American bombardment of civilian targets," said Theyba, one of the protest organizers, reading to the crowd from a petition outside the United Nations headquarters in Kabul

Afghans see a series of mistaken air strikes as evidence that the United States is not concerned about Afghan lives.

KARZAI JOINS THE CHORUS

"In case of further such incidents, Afghans may start becoming really hostile toward Americans," said a law student who identified himself only as Hakim. "And that does not bode well for peace in this country."

Conscious of such sentiment, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded Tuesday that the United States take "all necessary measures" to avoid further civilian casualties. Some Afghans believe Karzai owes so much of his power to his U.S. patrons that he is afraid of angering the U.S. administration.

Clearly, however, the U.S. military is sensitive to the risks of alienating the Afghans. U.S. spokesmen were quick to express regret over the loss of civilian lives, and Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, commander of the U.S. forces in the Afghan capital, said it was "not part of the parameters of this coalition to attack innocents."

PHOTO CAPTION

Abdul Malik prays at the grave of his father Mohammed Sherif, Kakarak, Afghanistan Thursday, July 4, 2002. Malik lost 25 family members including his mother and father, brother of one of President Hamid Karzai's close allies, when U.S. planeshot at them as they were celebrating Malik's engagement party Monday. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)