Afghans Torch NATO Vehicles After Latest Night Raid Killings

Locals Insist Slain 'Insurgents' Were Actually Civilians

Another of the night raids that Gen. Stanley McChrystal has repeatedly promised to curb has gone awry, and sparked violent protests across the Logar Province of Afghanistan today, after it was revealed that the raid killed three innocent civilians.

The initial NATO report alleged that they had arrested a confessed “Taliban sub-commander” and killed three “insurgents” in the raid. As the protests grew over the morning relatives insisted that all those killed were actually civilians.

But local tribesmen wasted no time taking to the streets in protest, blocking roads and eventually turning on a NATO supply convoy that attempted to pass. At least 15 trucks, including several fuel tankers, were reported destroyed as the crowd shot at them. Reports say that some also threw firebombs or hand grenades at the trucks.

Though NATO killing civilians and labeling them insurgents is nothing new, and that wasn’t even the first time it had happened this week, locals seem to be increasingly discontented with the business-as-usual of NATO killing their neighbors and chalking it up to “insurgency,” and the violent protests will likely only continue to grow as such incidents continue to occur.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.