Afghanistan shooting: the farmer who lost 11 family members

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

The dead included his wife, four daughters aged between 2 and 6, four sons aged between 8 and 12, and two other relatives.

He spoke by satellite telephone to Hamid Karzai from his home and told him: “either finish us or get rid of the Americans,” the newspaper reported.

He told the Afghan leader: “We made you president, and what happens to our family? The Americans kill us and then burn the dead bodies.”

An American army staff sergeant is being held after the shooting after apparently returning to his base and handing himself in.

The killings have again heightened anti-Western feeling in the country, three weeks after nationwide protest at the burning of Korans at Bagram airfield.

Unknown attackers fired on a delegation of senior government figures, including two of Mr Karzai’s brothers, which went to visit the site of the killings.

One Afghan soldier died and three people were wounded when the visiting officials came under small arms fire at a mosque in the village.

Students in the eastern city of Jalalabad mounted protests in anger at the killings, but the demonstration ended quickly.

The soldier who allegedly committed the attack once had a traumatic brain injury and had problems at home after his last deployment, it was claimed.

The gunman, whose victims included a total of nine children and three women, was said to have undergone the mental health screening necessary to become a sniper.

An official told ABC News that the soldier had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or a car accident. He went through treatment and was deemed to be fine.

He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. But according to ABC News, when the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems. Officials concluded he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.

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