A deadly U.S. military raid on a house near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan became a new source of tension Thursday, with the Americans calling it a successful counterterrorism strike and the Afghans saying it left three innocent civilians dead and two wounded, including a 4-year-old boy bitten by an attack dog.
The raid took place Wednesday in the village of Kundi, in Khost province. American military leaders and Afghan officials said they were investigating the conflicting accounts of what happened. But President Hamid Karzai condemned the raid in front of government leaders and foreign diplomats. “Entering by force to our people’s houses is against the government of Afghanistan,” he said.
The raid took place on the same day that diplomats in Kabul called on foreign forces to increase their sensitivity to win over Afghans.
In Khost, American-led forces blasted the gate of the house early Wednesday and then fatally shot the family’s father and mother and a male relative, according to Tahir Khan Sabry, deputy governor of the province. Their relationship with the wounded boy was unclear, and another woman was also bitten. Sabry described all the victims as noncombatant civilians.
The American military said that the raid led to the detention of an operative of Al Qaeda and that those killed were armed and showing “hostile intent.”
Grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, pistols and a shotgun were confiscated, American officials said.
Separately, in Pakistan, thousands of demonstrators demanded that the government close the route along which supplies are ferried to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, adding to the growing pressure on Islamabad’s beleaguered leadership.
The demonstration by more than 10,000 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar also focused on a recent series of U.S. missile strikes against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in tribal areas along the Afghan border and Pakistani military offensives against Islamic insurgents in the area.
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“We will no longer let arms and ammunition pass through … and reach the hands of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan,” Sirajul Haq, provincial head of hard-line Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, told the crowd.
“They are using the same against our innocent brothers, sisters and children.”
Early start on foreign relations
Read about Sen. John Kerry’s advice for Barack Obama on Afghanistan at chicagotribune.com/warshift