16 Dead in U.S.-Afghan Militant Violence - washingtonpost.com

16 Dead in U.S.-Afghan Militant Violence - washingtonpost.com: "16 Dead in U.S.-Afghan Militant Violence

By RAHIM FAIEZ
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 4, 2007; 9:02 AM

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- U.S. Marine Special Forces fleeing a militant ambush opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, wounded Afghans said. Up to 16 people were killed and 34 wounded in the violence, officials said.

More than a half dozen Afghans recuperating from bullet wounds told The Associated Press that the U.S. forces fired indiscriminately along at least a six-mile stretch of one of eastern Afghanistan's busiest highways _ a route often filled not only with cars and trucks but Afghans on foot and bicycles.

'They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway,' said Tur Gul, 38, who was standing on the roadside by a gas station and was shot twice in his right hand. 'They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot.'

After a suicide attack by an explosives-filled minivan, the Americans treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker, though none of the people showed hostile intent, said Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar.

Maj. William Mitchell, a U.S. military spokesman, "