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US embassy vehicles torched in Afghan capital

By Agence France-Presse
Friday, July 30, 2010 11:24 EST
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Rioting erupted in Kabul Friday when scores of Afghan men set fire to two US embassy vehicles after one collided with a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said.

Television pictures showed the vehicles in flames and young Afghan men throwing stones at them.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had despatched a quick reaction force to the area, outside the American embassy and near US and Afghan army bases in the centre of the city.

An ISAF official said the vehicles involved belonged to the US embassy.

“We don’t know yet how many people were killed in the accident,” interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashery said.

Witnesses said four passengers of the civilian car died when it was hit by one of two armoured vehicles moving in convoy.

Police fired shots in the air to quell the violence, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Afghan security forces cordoned off the area, closing the road to Kabul’s international airport, he said.

Local resident Saleh Ahmed said the accident happened when the civilian vehicle attempted to drive onto the main road from a side street and was hit by one of the two armoured vehicles.

“The civilian vehicle was trying to get into the main road when the two foreign vehicles hit it and killed all four occupants,” he said. “People gathered around the crash site to see what had happened, got angry and started attacking the foreigners.”

The AFP reporter on the scene said police helped the foreigners leave as the riot continued for about an hour before people started to disperse.

Young Afghan men threw stones and shouted “death to foreigners” and “death to Karzai,” referring to President Hamid Karzai, he said.

A similar traffic incident led to massive riots that shook the capital in May 2006, leaving at least 14 people dead.

Deployments by the United States and NATO are nearing their peak of 150,000, concentrated in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where a nearly nine-year Taliban insurgency is at its most intense.

A motorcycle bomb targeting a candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections killed a woman and a child in the southern city of Kandahar on Friday, police said.

The explosives-laden motorcycle was parked in a city centre alley used by the candidate, and detonated minutes after he passed by, provincial deputy police chief Fazel Ahmad Shairzad told AFP.

He blamed the attack on “enemies of Afghanistan,” a term often used to refer to the Taliban.

The parliamentary election was originally scheduled for May but postponed until September 18.

Candidates appear to be the latest targets of the Taliban, who have stepped up a campaign of roadside bombs, suicide attacks and assassinations in recent months.

Candidate Sayedullah Sayed died after a mosque in the southeastern province of Khost was bombed last Friday as he was campaigning, injuring 20 people.

Also in the south of the country, NATO said that three foreign soldiers had been killed in two separate Taliban-style bomb attacks on Thursday. An ISAF spokeswoman confirmed all three were American.

A total of 408 foreign troops have died in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website.

The toll for July is 86, compared with 102 in June, the worst month for foreign military casualties since the end of 2001.

Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
AFP journalists cover wars, conflicts, politics, science, health, the environment, technology, fashion, entertainment, the offbeat, sports and a whole lot more in text, photographs, video, graphics and online.
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  • dgenzle2001

    Stay the course!

    President Dumbass

  • Democratic_Socialist

    Why would any SANE government want to stay with the killing and distrust of the occupieds?
    Oh yeah. The four letter word:OIL!

  • PrissyPatriot

    I believe that's our cue to LEAVE…

  • PrissyPatriot

    And minerals.

  • yanktank61

    Whenever public disapproval is this apparent, our 'welcome' is definitely over. My only question is why did it take so long to become public?

    And, of course, the American government is going to be there for years until they have a full-blown insurrection on its' hands.

    Then, you will hear the military stating: we were winning, so what happened. The gov't will then say we did not spend enough, have enough troops……and increase the military budget.

    A fools errand……………….

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/OE5XPWYPEPY575C6ERKU3B34LQ striker

    Afghans don't want these Terrorist Occupiers on their lands. From NATO to UN, all of these Terrorist Organizations must go back to their own lands.

  • EndTheNWO

    Winning those Hearts and Minds yet General Betrayus?

    Americans and people all over the world are SICK to death of AMERIKA!

  • EndTheNWO

    And Opium!

  • Praxman

    and heroin.

  • yvonneo

    And an oil pipeline and…(shhhh–whisper)…the drug trade.

  • kiboshki

    Dear Mr. President:

    Get US the f*k out. Now.

    Yours sincerely,

    All the sane people.

  • Crispus Attucks

    Let's do the right thing and send Dick Cheney, as goodwill ambassador to this area. It's only right that the patent holder reap the benefits personally. It's the American way.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/YVBA25ZZJYN5C44WGILY6P4X34 Raven

    Nice to see that everyone in our empire is a happy camper. They must have been chanting “Bomb us some more”. Why on earth should they be mad? Ain't they liking the democracy we've brought them? I can see an embassy official talking to an Afghan citizen now. “I know you lost a leg and an eye, plus 2 kids and your wife, but isn't it just great that you can vote in a corrupted election”! “Isn't it great that Afghanistan is pumping out the opium again, and all those corrupt warlords are still in power”? Freedom, Hallelujah!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Annunciata-Rubiconski/1386164350 Annunciata Rubiconski

    Probably Xe …. They used to that in Iraq. Just drive over anyone in their way.

  • http://twitter.com/yeomalt Alex Hepler

    Many patriotic Americans believe “The Troops are fighting to protect our rights and freedoms.”

    If we were to reach for an honest understanding of US foreign policy- we might have less reasons to send the troops to distant lands.

  • damnadamzama

    Why aren't they greeting us as liberators? We are just trying to spread democracy through the murder of civilians, geesh.

  • Big_Alpha1

    Still winning hearts and minds I see.

  • cohentelstar

    Rush Limbaugh referred to the Abu Ghraib tortures as people “letting off steam” Just some fraternity hijinks. People get a little stressed out and they like to have a good time now and then to expend that sort of pent-up energy. Maybe Afghanis are celebrating the recent US intelligence failures in the same manner the L.A. Lakers fans celebrate a championship. Don't get me started on hockey and soccer fans. Whoo-hoo!! Yee-haaw!!

  • parrots_abound

    Dear Mr. Bush,

    You moronic reactionary Neocon, you committed us to this and should be tried for war crimes for what you did here and in Iraq.

    Dear Mr Obama,

    You lying -snake oil selling -Corporate puppet- DINO…get us out of Afghanistan and the entire Mid East or please escort yourself and Dubya to the nearest war crimes tribunal.

  • seen2much

    Holy cow!!! Look at all that CHANGE!!!!!! Ron Paul or Kucinich would have got us out by now..
    But you idiots had to go for the corporate guy… Guess you're all too stupid to know better.

    You're STILL too stupid, and 2012 will bring either a re-election, or another corporate clone…

    ALL of you party ass-followers DESERVE what you are setting yourselves up for..

    You DESERVE this moronic and inept leadership.

    Afghanistan killed every other empire that was stupid enough to go there, WE WILL BE NO DIFFERENT!!!

    Idiocracy is now far too real, just look in a mirror.

  • mindboggeling

    What is so hard about “end the war now”? Bring our troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan. End the bush/cheney fantasy of world dominance through force. The wars are the mistakes of a stupid president and a greedy and evil vice president so why would we want to continue the foolishness? Oh ya, the warmongering war profiteers. Piss on them. They have made Billions off the death and destruction of others. They shouldn't ever have any voice in this. In fact they all should be investigated for proof of war profiteering and held accountable for their incredible selfish greed. Bring the troops home and tend to OUR business and problems here at home. Stop our people from going without and suffering for the greed of others.

  • http://sugamari.wordpress.com/ sugamari

    “He blamed the attack on “enemies of Afghanistan,” a term often used to refer to the Taliban.”

    LIE? It is turning out and even reported on the BBC that the Taliban are wanted by the locals. The enemies are the outsiders who come and crash into innocent civilians. Wikileaks changed the game. even hilliaryous clinton is pretending to disown the ISI because they are on damage control mode.

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