Afghans want public trial of US soldier

Outrage over a murderous rampage by a rogue US soldier who killed 16 villagers gripped Afghanistan yesterday, as parliament called for a public trial and Taliban insurgents vowed revenge.

The US embassy issued fresh warnings to its citizens of possibly violent protests, while the latest setback in America’s longest war threatened negotiations with the Afghan government on its exit strategy.

The American, described by US officials as a staff sergeant who was married with three children and who had served three Iraq tours but was on his first Afghan deployment, walked off his base in southern Kandahar province and broke into three village homes before dawn on Sunday. He killed 16 people, including women and children — an event described by Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “unforgivable”.

“We seriously demand and expect the government of the United States to punish the culprits and try them in a public trial before the people of Afghanistan,” parliament said in a statement before closing for the day in protest.

Condemning the killings as “brutal and inhuman”, parliament declared that “people are running out of patience over the ignorance of foreign forces”.

It is the latest in a series of actions by troops that has provoked outrage in Afghanistan, and comes just weeks after the burning of copies of the koran at a US base sparked riots that killed 40 people and plunged ties to an all-time low.

The Taliban, leading a 10-year insurgency against US-led foreign troops and the government in Kabul, threatened to take revenge against “sick-minded American savages”.

However, there were no reports of protests, and leaders in Kandahar appeared to be trying to prevent any outbreak of violence.

“The people have told us ‘we won’t resort to violence, we won’t demonstrate, but we want our government to deliver justice’,” said a prominent tribal elder and member of Kandahar Provincial Council.

US President Barack Obama phoned President Karzai to promise a speedy investigation into the “shocking” killings, and the US soldier responsible for the shootings is in military detention.

The two countries are pursuing difficult talks on securing a strategic pact to govern their partnership once foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014. Any deal would address the legal status of US troops remaining to prevent the Taliban returning to power.

“The killings in Kandahar cast a long shadow over negotiations on a strategic partnership deal and certainly give greater leverage to Karzai,” said Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group conflict prevention/resolution NGO.

Karzai spoke by telephone with the families of those killed, including Rafihullah, a 15-year-old boy wounded in the leg who told the president: “He came to my uncle’s home, he was running after women, he was tearing their dresses, insulting them.

“He killed my uncle and killed our servant and my grandma, he shot dead my uncle’s son, his daughter.”