Accusations, Outrage as Five Civilians Die in Afghan Blast

Witness Claims US Soldier Threw Grenade Into Crowd

by Jason Ditz, January 06, 2010

An anti-US rally broke out today, after an explosion hit a crowd of civilians gathered around a US military inspection team, killing at least five people and wounding dozens of others.

The details of the blast are unclear, at best. The US forces were throwing candy to Afghan children who had gathered while they were inspecting an engineering project in Nangarhar Province. Suddenly, an explosion tore through the crowd.

Several US soldiers were among the wounded, which US officials chalked up to “unexploded ordinance.” The Afghan Interior Ministry called it a “terrorist act” and said a nearby police vehicle hit a land mine.

But at least one witnesss claimed that while the US soldiers were throwing candy, he saw one of them throw a hand grenade into the crowd, and the locals, all too used to reports of US forces killing civilians, seemed to take this to heart in a proest rally.

Though it seems very unlikely that this was an actual attack by US forces, particularly since several of them were among the wounded, it does speak to the lack of credibility that they have that this explanation was immediately accepted by so many.

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