British military authorities are investigating allegations that Royal Marines shot indiscriminately on Afghan bystanders following a suicide bombing last weekend.
At least two people died and five were wounded by shots fired from a supply convoy that raced through Kandahar after coming under attack. The incident has sparked widespread public anger in the southern city, where recent suicide bombs have frayed nerves and shortened tempers among Nato forces.
Squadron Leader Jason Chalk, a spokesperson for Nato regional command in Kandahar, described the reports as ”disconcerting” and promised a thorough investigation by Royal Military police. ”If people are found to have acted outside the rules of engagement, they will be held to account for their actions,” he said.
But Lieutenant Colonel Andy Price, spokesperson for the UK taskforce in Helmand, said the troops acted within their rules of engagement. ”I can categorically state that we did not indiscriminately open fire,” he said.
The extent of the allegations has only emerged in Guardian interviews with medics, witnesses, local journalists and western officials in Kandahar.
The suicide bomber struck at about 11am last Sunday as the British convoy passed on its way to Camp Bastion in Helmand. The blast flung an open-topped vehicle near the rear of the convoy on to a central reservation. Three Afghan labourers were killed, witnesses said, and three British soldiers suffered life-threatening injuries. The convoy security detail moved the wounded into two vehicles and started towards an evacuation point. Seconds later gunfire erupted.
Abdul Wali (26) a baker, was cowering inside when he heard the first bullets. Stepping into the street, he saw a taxi driver with apparent bullet wounds being pulled from his car. ”The British were shooting and shouting ‘Go! Go! Go!”’ he said yesterday. ”They were scared and they were taking their revenge.”
The British convoy pressed towards the city centre. At the busy Martyrs Square junction Abdul Rahim stopped his motorcycle to let it pass. More gunfire rang out, sparking panic. Bystanders dived into shops for cover, he said. Abdul Rahim tried to push his motorcycle back but it was too late. The first bullet passed through his upper back. The second pierced his side and lodged near his spinal cord. Grimacing with pain, the 35-year-old spoke softly from his bed at Kandahar hospital. ”The British say they came to bring peace to our country. What kind of peace is this?” he said.
Noor Khan, a reporter for Associated Press, who was sitting in his car nearby, feared he would also be shot. ”They aimed their guns straight at me. I immediately raised my hands,” he said.
The convoy pushed towards the Helmand road. But as they left the city the British soldiers allegedly opened fire again, more than eight kilometres from the suicide attack site, on a taxi carrying three men. ”The taxi was trying to park along the road. The driver and one passenger were wounded,” said Rahmatullah (19) a security guard, who witnessed it.
At Kandahar hospital the third man in the car, Dost Muhammad, said: ”Our driver reduced his speed and tried to stop on the side of the road. The British passed by very close and started firing.”
Colonel Price said the Marines believed they were under threat from a possible secondary attack. Bullet marks on two vehicles in the convoy indicated possible hostile fire from Taliban marksmen, he said. He said the British soldiers fired more than 300 warning flares as the marines raced through the city carrying their wounded. But civilian cars drove up one-way streets and blocked their escape.
”It’s very regrettable that civilians got hurt. But the Taliban detonated a bomb that killed innocent people on a busy street. That is not our fault,” he said.
Gunfire and secondary attacks do not usually follow suicide bombings in Afghan towns. Suicide bombers have struck six times in the past 12 days.
In the latest attack, a bomber killed one Afghan and wounded nine, including a six-year-old girl, but a Canadian convoy nearby escaped unscathed. The driver said the fleeing Canadians had shot the boy. But the British incident stirred the most emotion. Mourners at funerals on Tuesday spoke of a jihad against British soldiers. On Thursday the deputy commander of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, Tim Bevis, spoke on local television to explain the events.
”The foreigners should leave,” declared Fida Muhammad. ”Some say they are our enemy. I agree,” he said. But others said the alternative — a return to Taliban rule or internecine bloodshed — was a worse prospect. ”At the bottom of their hearts they don’t want the coalition to leave,” said Noor Khan. – Guardian Unlimited Â