Riot rocks Afghan capital after U.S. convoy wreck

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan capital erupted Monday in the worst street violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, following a fatal traffic accident involving a U.S. military truck. Mobs of men and young boys, many of them shouting slogans against the government and United States, set fires, attacked buildings and clashed with police for about seven hours.

Hotel windows were raked with gunfire, a foreign aid agency was torched and looted, and numerous police posts were destroyed. Some rioters brandished AK-47 assault rifles; gunfire sounded throughout the city and clouds of black smoke wafted in the air. Dozens of vehicles were smashed and burned.

The violence was fed by rumors that U.S. troops had shot and killed civilians, which U.S. military spokesmen denied.

Monday night, authorities imposed the first curfew in four years as the violence tailed off.

President Hamid Karzai went on national television to condemn the rioters as “enemies of Afghanistan.” Various news and official reports put the death toll as high as 20.

The riots exposed the bitter resentment that many Afghans harbor toward the U.S.-led military forces that have been stationed here since the Taliban was driven from power. It also reflected the deep ambivalence many Afghan Muslims feel toward the growing Western influence here, which includes high fashion and fast-food shops, sprawling aid compounds and even rap music.

The public mood has been tense since a U.S. airstrike killed at least 16 civilians last week in a village in southern Afghanistan, the scene of heightened fighting this spring. Afghan and U.S. of-ficials blamed Taliban insurgents who had taken shelter in village compounds and fired from them at U.S.-led forces.

More fighting was reported in the south on Monday. Afghan officials said a U.S.-led air attack in Helmand province targeted a mosque where Taliban guerrillas had gathered; a Canadian spokesman characterized the place as a compound and said it was hit by two 500-pound bombs.

The violence in Kabul disheartened many Afghans. “Today has set us back 10 years,” said a distraught Afghan man who works for the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led contingent that patrols the capital. “We have been working so hard to build something here. Now the foreigners will all go away and take their money with them.”

The accident that precipitated the rioting occurred at about 8 a.m. as a U.S. military convoy was entering the capital on a steep downhill boulevard toward the Khair Khona district, a U.S. military spokesman said. He said the brakes of a large cargo truck failed, and it crashed into a total of 12 civilian vehicles, killing one person and injuring at least six.

The spokesman, Maj. Matt Hackathorn, said an angry crowd converged there and threw stones, while Afghan police tried to push the crowd back to allow U.S. military personnel to leave. He said U.S. forces fired into the air “as a show of force,” but no shots were fired into the crowd.

As word of the accident spread across the city, people shouted that U.S. soldiers had shot and killed many civilians. That helped draw hundreds of men and boys into the roaming mobs. On the evening news, two TV stations showed crowds of people ducking and running while U.S. military vehicles drove by amid the sound of gunfire.

Witnesses said clusters of 200 to 300 men and boys roamed the streets all morning, carrying heavy sticks. Some of the leaders carried banners saying “God Is Great.” Others carried posters of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the anti-Soviet guerrilla leader who was assassinated in 2001. Shouts of “Down with Karzai” and “Down with Bush” were heard.

Rioters tried to reach Karzai’s palace but were stopped by police. They managed to destroy a giant portrait of him that covers an entire wall of the downtown municipal building.

All major open-air markets in the city were shut down. Schools were dismissed at midmorning, and many teenage boys with book bags joined in the looting and destruction, witnesses said. The streets were virtually deserted until late afternoon.

Karzai, speaking on national television Monday night, condemned “opportunists” for exploiting a simple traffic accident and said people responsible for the violence will be sought and treated severely. “Accidents happen all over the world,” he said. “This is not a reason to fight or destroy. Those who have done this are the enemies of Afghanistan.”