AP Update on the Brutal killing in Afghanistan

[TomClash]

This is the most complete account so far.



BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP) -- Moving from house to house, a U.S. Army sergeant opened fire Sunday on Afghan villagers as they slept, killing 16 people - mostly women and children - in an attack that reignited fury at the U.S. presence following a wave of deadly protests over Americans burning Qurans.

. . .


Villagers described cowering in fear as gunshots rang out as a soldier roamed from house to house firing on those inside. They said he entered three homes in all and set fire to some of the bodies. Eleven of the dead were from a single family, and nine of the victims were children.


. . .

"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," Khan said. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."

One woman opened a blue blanket with pink flowers to reveal the body of her 2-year-old child, who was wearing a blood-soaked shirt.

"Was this child Taliban? There is no Taliban here" said Gul Bushra. The Americans "are always threatening us with dogs and helicopters during night raids."

Dozens of villagers crowded the streets as minibuses and trucks carried away the dead to be washed for burial. One man used the edge of his brown shawl to wipe away tears.

Officials wearing white plastic gloves picked up bullet casings from the floor of a house and put them in a plastic bag.

An AP photographer saw 15 bodies in the two villages, some of them burned and other covered with blankets. A young boy partially wrapped in a blanket was in the back of a minibus, dried blood crusted on his face and pooled in his ear. His loose-fitting brown pants were partly burned, revealing a leg charred by fire.

It was unclear how or why the bodies were burned, though villagers showed journalists the blood-stained corner of a house where blankets and possibly bodies were set on fire.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=

[arely staircase]

1. so we are back to one guy now?

it seems implausible.

[TomClash]

2. Afghans think it is more than one

The story reflects that belief.

We'll see.

[arely staircase]

7. wouldnt they know?

That is a lot of shooting for one guy to do without people in the other housesfleeing into the night. Sounds more consistent with multiple killers hitting several homes at once.

[TomClash]

10. It depends

With an M16 or M4 semiautomatic two cartridges might be enough to kill that many people.

[arely staircase]

11. i know one soldier can carry enough rounds

in fact, i believe a us soldier generally carries a couple of hundred rounds. i'm talking about the logistics of going house to house w/o everyone in the village running like hell after he opened up in the first house. i 'm not saying it is impossible, just seems more consitent with multiple shooters falling upon the place at once and hitting multiple houses. maybe the rest of the community was cowering in corners and praying for their lives - horrifying in and of itself.

[Enrique]

3. send Arlen Specter over there

to get to the bottom of it.

[arely staircase]

8. or thomas kean and lee hamilton

they'll leave no stone unturned.

[scarletwoman]

4. Remember the Army's recruiting slogan from a few years back? "An Army of One."

This phrase was stolen, by the way, from Leonard Peltier's writings from prison regarding the struggle for justice for American Indians.

Origin of the slogan aside, here's OUR "Army of One" - a soldier randomly murdering innocent civilians in a foreign country.

[JSnuffy]

9. Lordy but I hated that slogan...

Army Strong is pretty good...

[lonestarnot]

12. I tried to sell them on "Can't be all you can be if you're dead or maimed."

They didn't like it.

[BlueIris]

5. This is just appalling.

Words cannot describe it.

[jillan]

6. I've been away most of the day - has the Obama admin put out a statement on this.

F*ck - this is just insane

[HopeHoops]

13. That was in today's paper. I couldn't finish the article.