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Protest erupt over civilian deaths in Afghanistan
University students took to the streets in Afghanistan protesting against the civilian deaths which occured during western military operations The protesters where shouting "death to Obama" and voicing outrage over the alleged deaths of 10 civilians, most of them school children in a military operation allegedly led by US Special Forces on Saturday.
Protesters took to the streets in Afghanistan on Wednesday, shouting "death to Obama" and voicing outrage over civilian deaths during Western military operations.
Hundreds of university students blocked main roads in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangahar province, to protest over the alleged deaths of 10 civilians, mostly school children, in a Western military operation on Saturday.
"The government must prevent such unilateral operations otherwise we will take guns instead of pens and fight against them (foreign forces)," students from the University of Nangahar's education faculty said in a statement.
Marching through the main street of Jalalabad, the students chanted "death to Obama" and "death to foreign forces," witnesses said.
"Our demonstration is against those foreigners who have come to our country," Safiullah Aminzai, a student organiser, told AFP. "They have not brought democracy to Afghanistan but they are killing our religious scholars and children."
A protest was also planned in Kabul against the "killing of civilians, especially the recent killing of students in Kunar by foreign forces," said organisers from the youth wing of Jamiat Eslah, or the Afghan Society for Social Reform and Development.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai "strongly condemned" the deaths -- which have not been confirmed by either NATO or the US military -- and ordered an immediate investigation.
"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province, 10 civilians, eight of them school students, have been killed," the statement said.
The operations in Kunar, which borders Pakistan, are being led by US Special Forces, a senior Western military official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "They have been killing a lot of Taliban members and capturing a lot of Taliban members," the official said.
The operations were conducted independently of the more than 110,000 NATO and coalition forces fighting to eradicate the Taliban, he said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), asked to comment on reports of the Kunar deaths, said it had no activities in the region at the time. US Special Forces operate separately from ISAF.
