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Karzai slams U.S. troops on deaths
POSTED: 8:50 p.m. EST, March 5, 2007
CNN

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned U.S. troops for allegedly shooting dead civilians at the weekend as officials said nine more -- five women, four children and an old man -- had been killed in an air strike.

U.S. marines shot dead at least eight civilians in the east on Sunday, in what the U.S. military said was a "complex" Taliban ambush involving a suicide bombing and gunfire in a populated area outside the city of Jalalabad, near Pakistan. (Full story)

The military said the soldiers fired in self-defense and 16 civilians were killed in the suicide raid and subsequent firing.

Wounded in hospital said U.S. soldiers just opened fire.

"The Americans fired at us without any justification," said Sayeda Jan, a passenger in a passing vehicle who was shot.

"Karzai should raise his voice and intervene, but he won't because he is thinking about his power. We were in the car and saw the convoy coming from the opposite direction and they fired at us."