Afghan farmer tells of finding family dead at hands of rogue soldier

When he returned to his compound on Sunday from nearby Spin Boldak, he found
his relatives lying dead, some shot, some stabbed and burned, he said.

Mr Samad’s daughters were aged between two and six, his sons eight to 12. “We
made you president, and what happens to our family?” he told President Hamid
Karzai by satellite phone. “The Americans kill us and then burn the dead
bodies.”

The Taliban has sought to capitalise on the anger and incite more
anti-American protests. Students in the eastern city of Jalalabad chanted
“death to America!” and burned an effigy of Barack Obama yesterday.

The US soldier is being held after apparently returning to his base and giving
himself up. The killings have raised anti-Western feeling, three weeks after
nationwide protests at the burning of Korans at Bagram airfield. When a
delegation of senior government figures, including two of Mr Karzai’s
brothers, visited the scene of the killings, militants responded by opening
fire.

Qayum and Shah Walid Karzai escaped the ambush, along with the governor of
Kandahar and the Afghan army’s chief of staff. One Afghan soldier was shot
dead and another two security personnel were wounded.

The two brothers were leaving a village mosque where they attended a memorial
service for the dead villagers.

The alleged perpetrator once suffered a traumatic brain injury and had
problems at home after his last deployment, officials told ABC News. None
the less, the gunman was said to have undergone the mental health screening
necessary to become a sniper.

The unnamed soldier was deployed to Afghanistan on Dec 3 with the 2nd Btn, 3rd
Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based
south of Seattle. The US military last night said a 48-hour probable cause
assessment had been completed and that the soldier continued to be held.

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