In memory of and sympathy for

 

Haji Abdul Qadoos, adult man killed

Abdul Rauf, adult man killed

3 children injured

2 women injured

during the night of January 31/February 1, 2009

 

in the Kalakhel area of Qarabagh district, Ghazni Province. U.S-led occupation forces attacked a “compound” claiming to be seeking a member of the Taliban Haqqani network. Close air support was called-in and the predictable ensued: 2 dead men (brothers), 2 injured women and 3 wounded children. The independent Pajhwok Afghan News reported (Feb. 1, 2009),

 
“…a large number of local people blocked the main Kabul-Kandahar Highway during a demonstration protest against overnight operation held by coalition troops in the lawless Qarabagh district of the province for five hours early this morning, said the district police chief, Col. Safiullah. He told Pajhwok Afghan News the US-led soldiers have killed two civilians and wounded five others during an airstrike carried out in Kalakhel area of the district. Three women were also among the five wounded, he continued. "The American soldiers kill us and their dogs bite our children and women during their irresponsible operations," said Abdul Baser, one of the protestors, adding the soldiers have bombed ordinary civilians who had no links with Taliban or al-Qaeda. The angry protestors led by tribal elders were chanting slogans against American soldiers, President Hamid Karzai and Afghan officials and rushed the victims to provincial capital to demonstrate in front of the governor house. Muhammad Qasim, another protestor informed this news agency Haji Abdul Qadoos and Abdul Rauf were killed in the overnight strike. Three children and two women received injuries during attack which also damaged seven mud houses of ordinary people, Qasim claimed.”

 
The protest continued into Monday. A village elder said U.S. military dogs had bitten five women. The daily, Frontier Post, added

 
“The angry protestors chanted slogans against the US forces and President Hamid Karzai and asked for withdrawal of foreign forces from the country. "We are not protesting only against the killing of two locals, but the protest is against the killings of dozens of people by the US forces in Tagab, Laghman and Kandahar," Ahmad Khan, a protestor told this agency. He said that the forces were only killing civilians, but they had detained a number of national elders and elderly people. "Women and children were bitten by their dogs," Khan said. A security official in Qarahbagh district also confirmed the blockade of the [Kabul to Kandahar] highway.”

  

Killed in a U.S. close air support strike