KABUL — An American soldier wandered outside his base in a remote southern Afghan village shortly before dawn Sunday and opened fire on civilians inside homes, killing at least 16, Afghan and U.S. officials said. The attack marked perhaps the grisliest act by a U.S. soldier in the decade-long Afghan war and seemed all but certain to stoke anti-American anger in a crucial battleground as foreign troops start to thin out in the south. Afghan officials said women and children were among those killed in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
Coming as Afghan rage over last month’s burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers was beginning to taper off, the killings threatened to spark a new crisis in the strained relationship between Washington and Kabul. The two nations are in the midst of contentious negotiations over an agreement that could extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country beyond 2014.
Officials shed no light on the motive or state of mind of the staff sergeant who was taken into custody shortly after the alleged massacre.
“It appears he walked off post and later returned and turned himself in,” said Lt. Cmdr. James Williams, a military spokesman.
U.S. military officials stressed that the shooting was carried out by a lone, rogue soldier, differentiating it from past instances of civilians killed accidentally during military operations.
“I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts,” Lt. Gen. Adrian J. Bradshaw, the deputy commander of the international troop coalition in Afghanistan said in a statement. “They were in no way part of authorized military activity.”
Fazal Mohammad Esaqzai, the deputy chief of the provincial council, said enraged villagers loaded the bodies into cars and drove to the entrance of the nearby American base to demand answers.
“They were very angry,” said Esaqzai, who was part of an investigative delegation that visited the villages where the shootings took place. “They wanted to do something to take revenge.”
Esaqzai, who said he saw the 16 bodies, provided the following account. About midnight, 11 people, including three women; four children whose ages ranged from 6 to 9; and four men were executed inside the home of a village elder.
“They entered the room where the women and children were sleeping and they were all shot in the head,” Esaqzai said, adding that he was doubtful of the U.S. account suggesting the killings were the work of a lone gunman. “They were all shot in the head.”
After roughly an hour, residents in a nearby village heard gunshots, and they later discovered the corpses of five men inside two nearby houses, Esaqzai said.
At least five people wounded in the shooting rampage were being treated at a U.S. military medical facility. Afghan and U.S. officials braced for a larger outcry later in the week.
“We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice,” the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement.
