U.S. Forces Kill 3 Afghans at Checkpoint -AP (civilians)

[Rose Siding]

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. soldiers sprayed a pickup truck with bullets after it failed to stop at a roadblock in central Afghanistan, killing two women and a man and critically wounding two other people, the latest in a string of civilian deaths at the hands of American forces.

The shooting occurred Saturday evening on a road in Ghazni province when the pickup truck ran through a joint U.S.-Afghan military checkpoint, the American military said. Soldiers searched the pickup but did not find any weapons.

The deaths came just two weeks after Afghan and American leaders met to discuss ways to improve relations between the military coalition and the people they are here to protect.
...
Many Afghans view American soldiers as heavy-handed and overly aggressive, and the deaths Saturday were likely to spark anger.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the incident was under investigation, though it gave no indication any of the soldiers involved were believed to have acted improperly.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-us-checkpoint-deaths,0,4021132.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines