17 March, 2012
An Afghan parliamentary investigation team has implicated up to 20 US
troops in the massacre of 16 civilians in Kandahar early on Sunday
morning. It contradicts NATO's account that insists one rogue soldier
was behind the slaughter.
The team of Afghan lawmakers has spent two days collating reports
from witnesses, survivors and inhabitants of the villages where the
tragedy took place.
“We are convinced that one soldier cannot
kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time,
and the 16 civilians, most of them children and women, have been killed
by the two groups,” investigator Hamizai Lali told Afghan News.
Lali
also said their investigations led them to believe 15 to 20 US soldiers
had been involved in the killings. He appealed to the international
community to ensure that the responsible parties were brought to
justice, stressing the Afghan parliament would not rest until the
killers were prosecuted.
"If the international community
does not play its role in punishing the perpetrators, the Wolesi Jirga
[parliament] would declare foreign troops as occupying forces,” he said.
The
head of the Afghan parliamentary investigation, Sayed Ishaq Gillani,
told the BBC that witnesses report seeing helicopters dropping chaff
during the attack, a measure used to hide targets from ground attack.
Gillani
added that locals suspect the massacre was revenge for attacks carried
out last week on US forces that left several injured.
Full article HERE
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