Balandi/Washington The outrage over a massacre of civilians by a US soldier in Afghanistan continued Tuesday with the first significant protest and a militant attack on a high-level government delegation raising the prospect of a new cycle of violence.
Two brothers of President Hamid Karzai were leaving a village mosque where they attended a memorial service for 16 villagers killed when the Taliban insurgents opened fire.
Qayum and Shah Walid Karzai and other top Afghan officials in their delegation escaped in their cars unharmed from the ambush in the country's south.
But one Afghan soldier was hit in the head almost immediately and died, while two other personnel were wounded in the 20-minute firefight that ensued in one of the two villages in Kandahar province where the killings had occurred two days before.
The gunbattle came as images of the aftermath of the killings spread and the public reaction began to build.
In the east, students staged the first significant protest in response to the killings, raising concerns about a repeat of the wave of violent demonstrations that rocked the nation after last month's burning of copies of the Quran.
Calming tensions
US President Barack Obama yesterday sought to calm tensions, telling Afghans he took it as seriously as if Americans had been slaughtered and the culprit would face the "full force" of US law.
Obama said he had directed the Pentagon to conduct a full investigation, into the killing spree by a US soldier. He told President Hamid Karzai that "the US takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered."
"We're heartbroken over the loss of innocent life. The killing of innocent civilians is outrageous and it's unacceptable. It's not who we are as a country, and it does not represent our military."
