Amerikaanse soldaat vermoordt 16 Afghanen in hun huizen

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Regeringsdelegatie beschoten op plek bloedbad

Militanten hebben in Afghanistan een regeringsdelegatie aangevallen, die de plek van het bloedbad van afgelopen zondag bezocht. Bij de confrontatie is zeker een dode gevallen.

Een delegatie, met daarin onder meer twee broers van de Afghaanse president Karzai, bezocht één van de dorpjes. Volgens ooggetuigen werden de delegatieleden van verschillende kanten beschoten. Door de aanslag werd een Afghaanse militair gedood en raakte een politieman gewond. Autoriteiten vermoeden dat de Taliban achter de aanval zit.

In twee dorpen in de Afghaanse provincie Kandahar richtte een Amerikaanse militair zondag een bloedbad aan. Hij schoot 16 burgers dood, onder wie negen kinderen.

De moordende militair gaf zichzelf na zijn actie aan op de militaire basis. Inmiddels is bekend geworden dat het om een 38-jarige man gaat. Hij heeft in 2010 in Irak een hersenbeschadiging opgelopen. Of dat een verklaring is voor zijn gedrag, is niet bekend.

Honderden jongeren zijn vandaag in de stad Jalalabad in het oosten van Afghanistan de straat opgegaan uit protest tegen het bloedbad. De actievoerders riepen leuzen tegen de VS en de Amerikaanse president Barack Obama.

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A U.S. official said the accused soldier had suffered a traumatic brain injury while on a previous deployment in Iraq.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 21:22 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
Die soldaat is iig ziek in z'n hoofd om zonder reden onschuldige burgers af te slachten.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 21:25 schreef opgebaarde het volgende:
Nou er kan best een reden zijn als je na het eerste huis nog 2 kilometer rijdt naar het volgende huis

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 21:29 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:

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Islamofoob en racist waarschijnlijk... een westerse terrorist die geen westerse terrorist wordt genoemd door de subjectieve media.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 21:22 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
Die soldaat is iig ziek in z'n hoofd om zonder reden onschuldige burgers af te slachten.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 21:50 schreef moussie het volgende:
Mwah, ik vind eerder het beleid dat tot dit soort gedrag in de hand werkt ziek.
Ik bedoel maar, die soldaten zitten langdurig in een situatie waarin zij nooit zeker weten of de ander nou vriend of vijand is, in een totaal andere cultuur waarvan je de taal niet of nauwelijks beheerst. Zo gek is het niet dat sommigen na verloop van (voor hun teveel) tijd 'breken' en gekke dingen gaan doen.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 23:20 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:
Berechten in Afghanistan, was het maar mogelijk.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 23:20 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:
Berechten in Afghanistan, was het maar mogelijk.

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Op woensdag 14 maart 2012 23:48 schreef Jian het volgende:

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Nou, dan krijgt ie tenminste wel een eerlijk proces ...

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Op woensdag 14 maart 2012 02:16 schreef Stephen_Dedalus het volgende:

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Voor iemand die uit Nederland komt klinkt dat hypocriet.

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Op woensdag 14 maart 2012 23:54 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:

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Alsof ik een echte rechtzaak bedoel !

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Vertel.

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Op donderdag 15 maart 2012 00:59 schreef Mumit het volgende:
dit zal de woede in afghanistan ongetwijfeld nóg aanwakkeren, zoals al bleek in de afgelopen dagen.
what goes around must come around.

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Hersenletsel
Anonieme bronnen binnen de Amerikaanse overheid vertelden dat de sergeant in 2010 hersenletsel heeft opgelopen bij een ongeluk in Irak, waar hij toen was gelegerd. Over een mogelijk verband met het bloedbad wilde hij niet speculeren.

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Op dinsdag 13 maart 2012 20:23 schreef moussie het volgende:
Dit is blijkbaar de originele zin

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http://www.reuters.com/ar(...)dUSBRE82B1F820120313

Beetje dom om dat te vertalen naar 'hersenbeschadiging', er staat toch geen 'brain damage'.
Een beschadiging kan het gevolg zijn van het opgelopen hersenletsel, of te wel de 'brain injury', dat wel, maar dat is dus niet gezegd. Anders kan je iedereen die ooit een hersenschudding heeft gehad wel afschrijven als 'niet geheel toerekeningsvatbaar'.

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Crashed vehicle causes scare for Panetta at Afghan base



(Reuters) - An Afghan man driving a stolen pickup truck sped onto a runway ramp at an air base in southern Afghanistan and then emerged from the vehicle ablaze at around the time Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was arriving aboard a military plane, U.S. officials said.

The Pentagon chief, making an unannounced visit at a time of high tensions after a U.S. soldier massacred 16 Afghan villagers on Sunday, was not hurt in the incident at Bastion Airfield, a British base, and continued on with his schedule of events.

The Afghan man, a civilian who was not believed to be carrying explosives, was being treated at the base for severe burn injuries, U.S. officials said. No explanation was given for how the man caught on fire. The pickup trunk apparently approached the runway ramp - where aircraft park - at high speed before ending up in a ditch, officials said. U.S. officials did not rule out the possibility that the incident in southern Helmand province was an attempted attack on Panetta, but said there was no indication that this was the case. They said an investigation was ongoing. "There is no evidence right now that the driver had any idea who was on that aircraft," U.S. Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters in Washington.

The incident was a reminder of the tense security situation in Afghanistan more than a decade after U.S. forces invaded to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda network responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

Many questions about the incident remained after briefings by U.S. officials.

The Afghan man's vehicle neither caught fire nor exploded, and there were not explosives there either - raising questions about how he came to be on fire, Pentagon spokesman George Little said in Afghanistan, denying Afghan media reports. "For reasons that are totally unknown to us at this time, our personnel discovered that he was ablaze," Little said. "Base personnel put the fire out and he was immediately treated for burn injuries and is still being treated. He sustained considerable burn wounds," Little added. One NATO service member was injured in the apparent car-jacking, U.S. officials said. This service member's nationality was not disclosed.

"A coalition member was injured in the theft of the vehicle," Kirby said. "... My understanding was (that the service member was) pulled out and potentially hit by the vehicle, too." Tensions are high in Afghanistan in the wake of Sunday's massacre and the furor over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, at a NATO base last month. Reporters traveling with Panetta on his aircraft were not told about the incident for about 10 hours after it took place shortly before 11 a.m. local time. Panetta carried on with his schedule, talking to troops at Camp Leatherneck about the importance of the decade-old war effort. Shortly before he arrived to speak, U.S. troops and other allies were told to put their weapons outside the tent - a highly unusual move that officials downplayed later. The commander in Helmand, U.S. Major General Mark Gurganus, said he wanted foreign troops to be unarmed since Afghan troops would be.

Little said the removal of the firearms and the incident involving the pickup truck were "absolutely not" linked. Panetta's team apparently became aware that something was amiss shortly before landing at Bastion but details only came later. "We did know that we were diverted to a different runway. And we learned soon after landing that there may have been an incident," said Little, who was traveling with Panetta. "Again, the security of the secretary was never in question. He carried on during the event."

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Afghan man who crashed truck near Panetta plane dies; suspected Kandahar shooter moved to Kuwait

KABUL — The Afghan man involved in the Wednesday attack that occurred during Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan died from burns, said Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the number two American commander in Afghanistan.

The Afghan, an interpreter at the base, tried to run over a group of U.S. Marines who had assembled on the runway ramp to meet the secretary’s plane. He was driving a stolen pickup truck. He then crashed the vehicle and appeared to set himself on fire, Scaparrotti said.

The attack occurred around the time Panetta’s plane landed. There were no explosives involved, but the Afghan may have been trying to set the car on fire with fuel that he was carrying with him.

The Afghan passed away while being treated for his wounds. “His burns were extensive,” Scaparrotti said. “We don’t know his intent . . . or what motivated him.”

Scaparrotti said the man, who was not armed, had “tried to hit the [U.S. Marines] on the ramp,” but missed them and crashed his vehicle. He struck and wounded a British soldier while stealing the pickup truck.

“I personally don’t believe it had anything to do with the secretary’s arrival,” the U.S. general said.

Wednesday’s attempt appears to be the latest in a string of attacks aimed at U.S. forces while they were inside secure NATO bases or Afghan government facilities. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in multiple incidents by Afghan soldiers or police following the burning of several copies of the Koran by U.S. troops in February.

Also Wednesday, U.S. military officials said the unidentified Army staff sergeant accused in Sunday’s killings had been moved out of Afghanistan into Kuwait. Some Afghan officials had demanded the staff sergeant be tried in Afghanistan, and Afghan lawmakers reacted angrily to news that he had been moved.

But Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, said the Afghan government was notified that the United States intended to fly the suspect out of the country.

Cummings called the step “routine standard operating procedure when we are preparing to charge an individual and introduce them into the military justice system.” The spokesman said he did not know when charges would be filed.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the southern province of Zabul to demand that the soldier be prosecuted in Afghanistan , provincial officials said. They did not appear to know the soldier had been moved to Kuwait.

“They have termed the killings an inhumane act and want the punishment to be carried out inside Afghanistan,” deputy provincial governor Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.

Sayed Mohammad Akhund, a lawmaker from Kandahar province, questioned whether the United States was trying to cover up facts about the case. “One person was not behind this,” Akhund said. “It was a formal operation backed by air support. We want all the culprits to be tried in Afghanistan, under Afghan law.”

Mohammad Nayem Hamidzai, another lawmaker from Kandahar, said the soldier’s departure is likely to generate fresh outrage.

“People have been killed with no justification and then burnt,” he said. “They have proved that they are savages.”

The soldier’s unit is from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash. He will likely face prosecution there if he is charged. A decision on whether to convene a court-martial would be made by an Army general who is in the soldier’s chain of command.

Amid continuing furor over the slayings, U.S. officials showed a base surveillance video of the staff sergeant surrendering to Afghan security guards upon his return to his combat outpost. The video, recorded from a spy balloon floating over the outpost, was released as part of an effort to knock down rumors that other U.S. troops might have been involved.

Panetta, making his third trip to Afghanistan, pledged during his visit that a recent string of setbacks would not force the United States to alter its strategy here.

Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, the senior Marine commander in southern Afghanistan, virtually ruled out further restrictions on night raids, which have drawn repeated criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and have been a major stumbling block in talks on the framework of a long-term security relationship.

“I don’t know how much more accommodating we can be with what is a critical element of a counterinsurgency fight,” Gurganus said. All the night raids are being conducted by joint teams of U.S. and Afghan forces, he said.

Speaking to U.S. and Afghan troops at Camp Leatherneck, Panetta sought to tamp down worries about the course of the U.S. war effort after the Kandahar massacre and the Koran burnings, which U.S. officials say was accidental.

“We have been tested time and time again over a decade of war,” Panetta told the U.S. and Afghan troops who gathered in a stuffy tent. “That is the nature of war. . . . Each of these incidents is deeply troubling, and we have to learn lessons from each of these incidents.”

In a departure from past practice, about 200 Marines at Camp Leatherneck were told to set their rifles outside before hearing Panetta speak. Gurganus said he ordered the move out of respect for the two dozen Afghan soldiers who attended the meeting without weapons. “This is not a big deal,” he said.

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Op donderdag 15 maart 2012 00:34 schreef Stephen_Dedalus het volgende:

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Dus je wilt dat hij geen echte rechtzaak krijgt?

Nederland zou zijn soldaten ook niet laten berechten door vreemde mogenheden. Zeker niet in een land waar we zelf geeneens vluchtelingen terug naartoe sturen omdat de situatie te gevaarlijk is en de kans op foltering en een oneerlijk proces te groot is.