Protesters say NATO attack killed Afghan civilians

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University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Chowdhury addressing a press conference on the second phase of fund allocation under higher education improvement project (AIF award giving) in the city Saturday. — Focus Bangla Photo

KABUL, May 14 (AP): Hundreds of protesters brandished sticks, threw stones and burned an American flag Friday in eastern Afghanistan as they accused NATO forces of killing civilians in an overnight raid, but the alliance said eight insurgents were killed in the attack.
More than 500 people poured into the streets in the Surkh Rod district of Nangahar province to protest the raid by international forces that they claim killed at least nine civilians. A father and his four sons and four members of another family were killed in the NATO operation, said Mohammed Arish, a government administrator in Surkh Rod.
"They are farmers. They are innocent. They are not insurgents or militants," Arish told The Associated Press by phone.
However, NATO said the raid involving allied and Afghan forces targeted insurgents. Eight - including a Taliban sub-commander - were killed in a firefight, said alliance spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks.
Shanks revised NATO's original version of events, saying militants had not fired rocket-propelled grenades at coalition forces, as had been first believed. He said the alleged insurgents had fired machine guns.
Two other people were captured during the operation, and weapons and communications gear were confiscated at the targeted compound, Shanks said.
Locals paraded out several of the bodies during the demonstration.
Protesters blocked roads, hurled stones at a government office and sought to march toward the provincial capital of Jalalabad, before being turned back by police, Arish said. At least three people were injured during a clash with police, the Nangahar governor's office said.