Soldier kills 16 civilians

BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP):

An American soldier opened fire on villagers near his base in southern Afghanistan yesterday and killed 16 civilians. Nine children and three women were among the dead.

NATO officials said the soldier acted alone and turned himself in to his commanders after opening fire on civilians while United States President Barack Obama called the killings "tragic and shocking," and offered his condolences to the Afghan people.

Shocked and saddened

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was "shocked and saddened" by the attack and said the suspect was "clearly acting outside his chain of command."

But Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai called it an "assassination" and furiously demanded an explanation from Washington.

"This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven," Karzai said in a statement. He said he has repeatedly demanded the US stop killing Afghan civilians.

The killing spree deepened a crisis between US forces and their Afghan hosts over Americans burning Muslim holy books on a base in Afghanistan last month.

The burning sparked weeks of violent protests and attacks that left some 30 dead. Six US service members have been killed by their Afghan colleagues since the Quran burning came to light, but the violence had just started to calm down.

The violence over the Quran burning has spurred calls in the US for a faster exit strategy from the 10-year-old Afghan war.

President Barack Obama even said recently that "now is the time for us to transition."

But he also said he had no plan to change the current timetable that has Afghans taking control of security countrywide by the end of 2014.

The tensions between the two countries had appeared to be easing as recently as Friday, when the US and Afghan governments signed a memorandum of understanding about the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan control - a key step toward an eventual strategic partnership to govern US forces in the country.

But Sunday's shooting could push that agreement further away.

"This is a fatal hammer blow on the US military mission in Afghanistan. Whatever sliver of trust and credibility we might have had following the burning of the Quran is now gone," said David Cortright, the director of policy studies at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

CAPTION: An Afghan soldier speaks to civilians gathered outside a military base in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says a US service member has killed more than a dozen people in a shooting including nine children and three women. Karzai called the attack Sunday