[UPDATE BELOW] An American soldier has been detained for shooting and killing at least 16 civilians in the early morning hours today in the Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. The New York Times reports that villagers and provincial officials say the service member attacked three separate houses, and that five of the victims were girls, age six or younger. Five others were wounded. Al Jazeera reports the dead numbering anywhere from 15 to 17. According to the AP, Afghan president Hamid Karzai called the incident "an assassination" and is demanding an explanation.
“We don’t know why he killed people,” one villager said, adding that one of the houses that was attacked was inhabited by a tribal elder. “There was no fighting or attacks.” The village was approximately 500 yards from a U.S. base.
An AP photographer saw some of the victims being carried away.
Some of the bodies had been burned, while others were covered with blankets. A young boy partially wrapped in a blanket was in the back of a minibus, dried blood crusted on his face and pooled in his ear. His loose-fitting brown pants were partly burned, revealing a leg charred by fire.
Samad Khan lost his entire family—all 11 members, women and children included. He was away from the village when the incident occurred. "This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," Khan said. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."
The incident follows the death of four Afghan civilians on Friday when coalition helicopters fired on a group of villagers in eastern Afghanistan they believed to be Taliban insurgents. Last month coalition forces enraged the country after it burned several Korans, and earlier this year footage leaked of Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban soldiers.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the U.S. entered the region in 2001. President Obama has promised to bring the majority of troops stationed there home by the end of 2012.
"I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province," Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, the deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said in a statement.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also released a statement. It reads in part:
We are saddened by this violent act against our Afghan friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and their entire community. U.S. Forces are providing the highest level of care for those injured. We are still attempting to ascertain the facts. The incident is under investigation and a United States service member has been detained.
UPDATE: President Obama has released a statement noting that he was "deeply saddened" by deaths of innocent civilians at the hands of a U.S. soldier. “This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan,” he said. “I fully support Secretary Panetta’s and General Allen’s commitment to get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible.”
Villagers told Reuters that they awoke this morning to the sound of gunfire and drunken laughter from American soldiers. "They were all drunk and shooting all over the place," one said.
American military authorities indicated that the soldier in question was a staff sergeant. “It appears he walked off post and later returned and turned himself in,” a military spokesman said.
