Afghans demonstrate after children die in troop raid

Posted 09 2 2008 9:08AM

KABUL (AFP) - Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets Monday in protest at what they said was the murder of four civilians, including two baby boys, in an early morning raid by international troops.

The demonstrators showed journalists the bloodied bodies of the children shot dead with their father on the eastern outskirts of the capital, an AFP reporter said.

"They attacked the house and killed two children, almost two years-old, a woman and a man," Mohammad Naweed from Hoodkhail village said.

Naweed said "foreign forces" also took three men from the house after blasting open the main gate and opening fire.

It was not clear if the woman killed was the children's mother.

Local television stations showed pictures of women wailing as they were standing by the bodies demanding President Hamid Karzai stand down.

"We demand our prisoners be released immediately and those that killed innocent people while asleep on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan be brought to justice," Noor Rehmand, another protester said, referring to the men taken from the scene.

The US-led coalition denied any involvement in the attack.

A press office official at NATO, whose troops are in charge of security in Kabul, said: "We have no indication whatsoever that NATO forces were involved in this incident."

Afghan police could not comment immediately and the defence ministry said they had no information on the apparent raid.

The incident comes a week after a US-led coalition air strike killed 90 civilians in western Afghanistan's Herat province, according to United Nations and local investigators.

The deaths were heavily criticised by Karzai.