U.S. military convoy accidentally runs into cars in Kabul, killing 3.

[lwcon]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13027759/

KABUL, Afghanistan - A convoy of U.S. troops accidentally rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam in the Afghan capital on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding 16, police said.

A riot broke out after the incident, with protesters shouting “Down to America!” and throwing stones and burning cars. Police fired into the air but failed to disperse the rioters.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[MercutioATC]

1. You're obviously mistaken. They threw flowers, not stones.

:eyes:

[VegasWolf]

28. ROFL!! nt

[cliss]

2. Even if this was an accident,

Afghanis will never see it as such. We've made too many blunders, killed too many people to rescue ourselves this time.

That's the problem when you're a guest in someone else's country & forget your manners: they insist that you leave.

[TexasLawyer]

3. Riot involving US forces erupts in Kabul

Riot involving US forces erupts in Kabul

Monday 29 May 2006, 9:11 Makka Time, 6:11 GMT


Demonstrators throw stones at a coalition military vehicle in Kabul

T
US troops reportedly opened fire on a mob of Afghans demonstrating in Kabul after an accident involving a coalition military vehicle, and casualties have been reported.

Initial reports from Afghan police said that at least three people were killed and 16 others wounded when a convoy of US troops accidentally ran into a rush-hour traffic jam on Monday.

Sher Shah Usafi, a police chief in the city, said the convoy of US forces hit some civilian cars in a traffic jam near a busy market and bus station.

Protesters shouting "Down to America!" threw stones and burned cars, while police fired into the air but failed to disperse the rioters. The incident was followed by US soldiers shooting at rioters, killing or wounding at least 20 people, according to Aljzeera's reporter in Kabul.

<snip>

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B9E0FAF2-B4D3-4A69-93FA-749FAC6CC520.htm

[acmavm]

4. Things are going well in Afganistan, I see. Didn't george declare this

one won?

[TexasLawyer]

5. Things are BAD in Afghanistan

and they're even getting bad in Pakistan.

[acmavm]

9. I guess it would be wise to ALWAYS use the sarcasm smilie

when one is being sarcastic.

[rodeodance]

39. "Harboring resentment"-----no, they are not, and troops are smack in

the middle.




......Harboring resentment
While most Afghans support the presence of foreign troops to stabilize a country devastated by a quarter century of war and civil conflict, many also harbor resentment.

Those feelings have surfaced with increasing regularity in the past year, during violent protests over alleged desecration of the Quran at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and the publication in European newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

“We don’t want Americans in our country. They don’t care about poor people. They killed innocent people today and this is not the first time,” said 28-year old protester Abdul Shakoor.

“They do it all the time and in the end they say it was a mistake. It’s not acceptable to us any more.”

[cal04]

6. Some killed at Afghan protest over US accident

Earlier, scores of people took to the streets after a vehicle in a U.S. military convoy was involved in an accident with a taxi and then tried to drive away, witnesses said.A U.S. military spokeswoman confirmed that a military vehicle had been involved in an accident in which one person had been killed and six injured.

The spokeswoman, Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, said she had no information about the subsequent shooting."People are very angry," said resident Samad Shah.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-05-29T060722Z_01_ISL233894_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-PROTEST.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

[saltpoint]

7. It can't be too long from now, can it, before they flood into the streets

throwing roses at our troops?

Isn't that the gist of the reaction Cheney said we'd get?

Afghanistan sounds like it's getting worse instead of better.

'Appreciate this post, TexasLawyer, even if it carries unhappy news. The more close attention we pay to things like this, the sharper our focus is against the president's disastrous foreign policy.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. Georgie lit the fuses...

Babs never taught him not to play with fire. :(

[NYC]

27. Throwing stones.

Reminds me of David and Goliath.

[Erika]

10. But we liberated them!

Just ask Laura Bush. She's been there.

[dipsydoodle]

11. The word "accidently"

as in "accidently rammed into rush hour traffic" seems to be missing on our news in the UK.
The emphasis here seems to on "rammed into" which precipitated the riot. Sounded almost like an intro into another Blackhawk Down.

[0007]

12. Guess they saving the word, "inadvertently" for the next ramming

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IndianaGreen]

22. It appears that US troops deliberately ram their vehicle and then...

opened fire on the crowd. Earlier US accounts of this being an accident and troops firing in the air are contradicted by eye witnesses, including Afghan police.

Violent protests rock Afghan capital

Monday 29 May 2006, 17:44 Makka Time, 14:44 GMT

At least four people have died in riots in Kabul after US and Afghan forces fired on civilians protesting against a fatal car accident involving US soldiers, witnesses say.

Aljazeera's correspondent in the capital described the situation as out of control, with gunfire heard in many areas and with government buildings closed.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the accident on Monday morning said US troops opened fire and killed at least four people. He said two men were shot dead next to him, and two other bodies were found after the burst of gunfire. Several were wounded.

Later in the day, protesters marched to the palace housing Hamid Karzai, the US-backed Afghan president, setting fire to police cars and shouting: "Death to America

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B9E0FAF2-B4D3-4A69-93FA-749FAC6CC520.htm

[MaineDem]

13. US crash sparks Afghanistan riot (the BBC Headline)

Riots have broken out in the Afghan capital, Kabul, after at least seven people were killed in an accident involving a US military convoy.

A BBC correspondent says gunfire can be heard from many parts of the city, including from near the US embassy.

Police said the convoy collided with a rush-hour traffic jam.

The incident sparked angry scenes in which crowds shouting anti-US slogans began throwing stones and burning cars, police said.

There are conflicting reports about who has been doing the shooting - US troops or Afghans.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5026350.stm

[Sparkly]

14. AP account: "Afghans riot after U.S. truck accident"

I posted this elsewhere, but it isn't totally clear what happened...

Col. Thomas Collins, a coalition spokesman, voiced regret for any deaths and injuries. He said a large cargo truck in a coalition convoy had suffered a mechanical failure and hit as many as 12 civilian vehicles at a busy intersection. He said the coalition was conducting an investigation.

(snip)

Witnesses said the incident began when a convoy of at least three U.S. Humvees came into the city from the outskirts and hit several civilian cars in rush-hour traffic jam.

"The American convoy hit all the vehicles which were in their way. They didn't care about the civilians at all," said Mohammad Wali, 21, a shopkeeper.

(snip)

Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the U.S. military. Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speeds and sometimes disregard road rules. The U.S. military says such tactics are necessary to protect troops from attack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060529/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan

[lwcon]

15. The mechanical failure...

... was a President who robotically obeyed the PNAC clan and started an unnecessary war in Iraq, diverting resources that would have found Bin Laden and secured the peace in Afghanistan.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[IndianaGreen]

16. “Death to Karzai! Death to America!”

Hundreds of protesters marched on palace of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai in the city center after the incident, shouting “Death to Karzai! Death to America!”

Looks like US troops opened fire on the demonstrators. US assertions that the troops fired in the air is probably a lie, like all the lies they have told us about this stupid war. There are witnesses contradicting earlier US claims. Here is the MSNBC account as of this time and date.

Doesn't the picture remind you of Palestinians throwing rocks at occupation troops?



Deadly U.S. traffic crash triggers riot in Kabul

Four dead, 18 wounded after accident, riot; protesters march on palace

Witnesses: U.S. vehicles slam into traffic

Witnesses said the incident began when a convoy of at least three U.S. Humvees came into the city from the outskirts and hit several civilian cars in rush-hour traffic jam.

“The American convoy hit all the vehicles which were in their way. They didn’t care about the civilians at all,” said Mohammad Wali, 21, a shopkeeper.

Three people were killed and 16 wounded in the crash, said Sher Shah Usafi, a Kabul police chief. U.S. forces then fired on the crowd, killing one person and wounding two, he said.

A commander with the city’s traffic police who was at the scene said he also saw U.S. forces firing on protesters. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13027759/

[Kagemusha]

20. Seems they're claiming Afghan cops did the real dirty work.

Who knows. Maybe they did. Doesn't make it better.

[IndianaGreen]

23. According to AFP photographer, US troops fired on the crowd

Violent protests rock Afghan capital

Monday 29 May 2006, 17:44 Makka Time, 14:44 GMT

At least four people have died in riots in Kabul after US and Afghan forces fired on civilians protesting against a fatal car accident involving US soldiers, witnesses say.

Aljazeera's correspondent in the capital described the situation as out of control, with gunfire heard in many areas and with government buildings closed.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the accident on Monday morning said US troops opened fire and killed at least four people. He said two men were shot dead next to him, and two other bodies were found after the burst of gunfire. Several were wounded.

Later in the day, protesters marched to the palace housing Hamid Karzai, the US-backed Afghan president, setting fire to police cars and shouting: "Death to America

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B9E0FAF2-B4D3-4A69-93FA-749FAC6CC520.htm

[Kagemusha]

31. Aside from yet another kill count

what I read was that US troops killed a few people, wounded a few more... and afterwards, Afghan forces did firing of a decidedly more direct nature into the crowd. The first line above reads "US and Afghan forces fired on civilians". So it seems that something like that happened. Again - not that an extra set of hands being bloodied changes the blood.

[951-Riverside]

38. Dear Protesters: Please leave "America" out of this

That is all.

Thank You :D

[alcibiades_mystery]

42. No

You own it. All of America owns it.

There's no way out of that. Might as well face up to it and start taking responsibility.

[bemildred]

17. CHAOS IN AFGHANISTAN

Riots hit Kabul after US Traffic Accident

A fatal traffic accident involving US military vehicles in Kabul has sparked some of the worst violence in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban. After civilians attacked the soldiers with stones, shots were fired, reportedly leaving seven dead and dozens injured.

US soldiers were travelling in the northern part of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday when they then became involved in a fatal traffic accident, according to media reports. The details, however, remain unclear.

After the soldiers from the convoy of three Humvee vehicles got out, locals began to pelt them with stones. Shots were fired, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens of others. "There are indications that at least one coalition military vehicle fired warning shots over the crowd," a statement issued by the US military said. A US military spokesman said no US troops had been hurt.

According to the Associated Press, Sher Shah Usafi, a police chief in Kabul, said the US vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars. At least three people were killed and 16 injured in the crash, while US forces killed one person and wounded two when they fired on dozens of stone-throwing rioters. But an AP reporter at the scene of the accident said he saw about 10 Afghan police firing into a crowd of about 50 demonstrators, after US troops had already left the area.

Spiegel Online

[IndianaGreen]

18. The latest reports is that this was no accident, but that US troops

purposely ram the Afghan vehicles that stood in their way, and then opened fire on the crowd. This is going to get very ugly.

[cliss]

30. We've currently got around 20,000 US troops

in Afghanistan. The country has a population of around 30 million people. That's 1 US troop to every 1,500 Afghanis.

This is going to get ugly. Afghanistan is a powderkeg, ready to blow. Hamid Karzai is a US puppet (an employee of Uno Cal) and the Afghanis know it. He's endured insult after injury after insult. He's demanded some explanations and reparations from the Americans.

I have no doubt he has loyalty to his people, but Washington sees him as a puppet. We're about to get our royal asses kicked.

There is something strangely self-defeating about these entanglements we're in, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. It almost borders on suicidal. Is there any parallel in history, where an army marches in, and sets the stage for its own defeat, almost begs to have the shit kicked out of it?

[daleo]

34. Perhaps the Soviet Union in Afghanistan?

That's more of a guess than anything else, though.

[InkAddict]

44. Ever see The Ten Commandments

Pharoah's chariots fed to the fishes!

[Penndems]

47. We need to get our troops out of that country ASAP

Judging from all the reports on the national and cable news networks, Afghanistan is on the brink of out-and-out chaos. They hate our guts, and they hate the puppet government we created (thank you Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al). My greatest fear is that all hell will break loose, the locals are gonna escalate violence against our troops, and that place goes up like a tinder box.

The Taliban is making a resurgence in the countryside and, although I pray it doesn't, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before their numbers completely overrun that nation.

Time to start pulling out NOW.

[ECH1969]

24. Afghans Riot After Deadly U.S. Truck Accident

A deadly traffic accident Monday involving U.S. troops sparked the worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting "Death to America!" At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International.

Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings, according to an Associated Press reporter. The AP reporter saw several demonstrators pull a man who appeared to be a Westerner from a civilian vehicle and beat him.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197370,00.html

[populistdriven]

25. US troops have orders to RAM cars out of way in case of traffic jams

A friend of mine served in Iraq and stated that they had standing orders to force their way through traffic jams by using military trucks as battering rams rather than risk getting attacked because of stopped traffic.

This happens all the time.

[NYC]

26. With a total disregard

for the drivers and passengers inside the cars?

[populistdriven]

48. his exact words were "I floored it and rammed cars out of the way"

[NYC]

49. That's dreadful.

[rocktivity]

45. Why can't the convoys make major movements AROUND the traffic jams?

I've been known to do that myself. And what do you mean by "battering rams?" They just roll through intersections at high speed at their leisure? Was this was an accident just WAITING to happen?

:crazy:
rocknation

[VegasWolf]

29. The only reason we attacked Afganistan was the Taleban wouldn't

let us run the Caspian oil pipeline across their property. So Bush attacks and installs an oil executive as President of the country, a guy that has so low popularity he can't step a foot outside of Kabul, and the Caspian oil pipeline is built by the World Bank with the neocon Wolfitiz as President of the World Bank. Bush expects this pipeline to bring Exxon, Halliburton, and BP millions of barrels a day. Too bad when the terrorists start blowing the pipeline up. Too much death for oil, would have been cheaper to force Detroit to raise its milage requirements, but then Halliburton and Exxon wouldn't make so much money.

[IndianaGreen]

46. We lost Iraq, we are losing Afghanistan, and Bush wants to attack Iran

which we will lose big time, and will make Iraq and Afghanistan look like a picnic.

[joanski0]

32. Barbara Starr on CNN is now reporting

about the mechanical failure of the vehicle. Does mechanical failure mean that the brakes wouldn't work?

[Kagemusha]

33. That or steering got busted and no time to brake.

Something like that.

[daleo]

35. The failure was in the nut behind the wheel

I mean the big nut and the big wheel - Bush.

[kskiska]

36. On the spot: 'Crowd wanted to skin us alive'

(snip)

"The mob crowded around the car and people were shouting: 'Let's get them - let's skin them alive'. We got out of there pretty quickly and as we were leaving we noticed a car was following behind.

(snip)

"Today it was angry teenagers - kids who have got nothing else to do. They are angry because they see all of the money being pumped into Afghanistan but still have no jobs.

"They are angry at the Americans who they see driving around as if they own the place and who appear to have caused this accident and then tried to drive away.

"I've spoken to friends who work in Iraq and they say that there was one day when it all changed. That could be the case here. They have realised that they can take on the police and take on the Americans - they could easily do it again.

more…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2201946,00.html

[rocktivity]

37. License, registration, and proof of insurance, please

If one of the vehicles in the convoy struck one of the vehicles in the traffic jam (which tend to move slowly, right?), that's an accident. If the vehicle was moving faster than it should have be given the rush-hour traffic, that's an accident that shouldn't have happened. But how does an ENTIRE convoy have a collision with traffic?

:shrug:
rocknation

[rodeodance]

40. ``Kabul erupts into violence over an accident`` UK headline:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/30/wafg30.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/30/ixnews.html
.... Kabul erupts into violence over an accident
By Isambard Wilkinson in Camp Bastion
(Filed: 30/05/2006)

A fatal traffic accident involving US troops sparked Kabul's worst riots since the fall of the Taliban yesterday, with thousands of protesters looting shops and chanting "Death to America".

[rodeodance]

41. this riot sprang and spread with speed.

....The speed with which the protests escalated into a citywide riot betrayed the underlying hostility to foreign troops and Mr Karzai's brittle hold on power.

"We will recognise as the enemy of Afghanistan these people who do these things," he said in a televised address last night. "You should stand up against these agitators and not let them destroy our country again."

Mr Karzai, who postponed a three-day visit to Qatar, is a staunch friend of the West and has in the past been mocked as the "mayor of Kabul" for his tenuous grip on the country outside the capital.

Yesterday's violence exposed how tenuous this authority is even on his own doorstep.

[alcibiades_mystery]

43. That's exactly right

A whole city doesn't get thrown into this sort of chaos because of a traffic acident, any more than the better part (and I mean that literally) doesn't get thrown into chaos in Los Angeles merely over a police brutality verdict. That is the spark, not the problem. I think, unfortunately, that it's going to get very very ugly in Afghanistan from here on in. The international joke, of course, is that the US puppet Karzai is merely the "Mayor of Kabul." Now it looks like he's not even that. He's the king of his castle, and that's about it.

[Scurrilous]

50. Security Forces Guard Kabul After Riots

<snip>

"Security forces in tanks and on foot took up positions around the Afghan capital Tuesday to prevent a repeat of deadly anti-foreigner riots - the most widespread violence in the city since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

An overnight curfew in this city of 4 million passed without incident and there were no reports of violence early Tuesday, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

"The army has control of the city. We have tanks in the city for the first time," he said. "We have 2,000 troops at key places. Everything is calm."

There were no sounds of gunfire or plumes of smoke coming from around the city, unlike Monday when protesters chanting "Death to America!" marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International."

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/05/30/ap2779502.html