US soldier on rampage kills 16 Afghans

Sixteen Afghans, nine of them children, were killed by a rogue US soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes early Sunday, Afghan and Western sources said.

Sixteen Afghans, nine of them children, were killed by a rogue US soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes early Sunday, Afghan and Western sources said.

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The killings in two villages of Panjwayi district in the southern province of Kandahar come just weeks after US soldiers burnt copies of the Quran at a Nato base, triggering widespread anti-Western protests.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the rampage as “intentional murders” and demanded an explanation from the US.

The soldier was later arrested but there was no word on what might have motivated his actions.