Afghan president condemns US firing during protests

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai today condemned the use of gunfire by US troops to suppress Afghans angered by a traffic accident involving a military truck that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.

Speaking in his native Pashto language, Karzai used phrases that left open whether the US troops had fired into a crowd that had gathered at the scene of Monday’s accident, or only over their heads. But he was strongly critical.