Coalition Airstrike Kills Afghan Family

Afghan men shouts anti-American slogans after a car bomber attacked an American convoy in Barikaw in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, Sunday, March 4, 2007.A suicide car bomber attacked an American convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, and up to eight Afghans were killed and 22 wounded in the blast and ensuing gunfire, officials said. Hundreds of Afghans gathered to protest the violence, blocking the road and throwing rocks at police.(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (Rahmat Gul - AP)

JABAR, Afghanistan -- A coalition airstrike destroyed a mud-brick home after a rocket attack on a U.S. base, killing nine people from four generations of an Afghan family including a 6-month-old, officials and relatives said Monday _ one of the latest in a string of civilian deaths that threaten to undermine the government.

It was the third report in two days of U.S. forces killing civilians. The airstrike took place late Sunday in Kapisa province north of the capital, some 12 hours after U.S. Marines opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians following a suicide bombing in eastern Nangahar province.

Sayad Mohammad Dawood Hashimmi, the deputy governor of Kapisa province, said Tuesday that the coalition airstrike had targeted the home of a known Taliban militant involved in attacks on coalition troops.

Hashimmi said the home's owner was a known militant named Mirwais who was involved in rocket attacks on the nearby U.S. base. Before the Sunday strike, a group of Afghan elders had asked Mirwais to stop attacks against the coalition base.

"But they're Taliban and they didn't listen. So the result is that Mirwais lost his family," Hashimmi said.

Hashimmi alleged that Mirwais was wounded in the attack but managed to flee.

In the other incident, an American convoy in the southern city of Kandahar _ where suicide attacks have become commonplace over the past year _ opened fire Monday on a vehicle that drove too close, killing the driver, said Noor Ahmad, a Kandahar police officer who said he witnessed the shooting.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that they shot at the speeding vehicle because it "attempted to collide with an ISAF convoy traveling through Kandahar city."

Up to 10 Afghans died in the aftermath of the Nangahar suicide attack, which wounded a U.S. Marine. President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, "which caused the American forces to fire on civilians," and a statement said relatives of the dead wanted the "perpetrators" brought to justice.

On Tuesday, hundreds of students from Nangarhar University protested the killings.

In both the Nangahar and Kapisa incidents, the U.S. military blamed militants for putting innocent lives in danger. A villager in Kapisa, about 50 miles northeast of the capital, confirmed the U.S. account that a rocket was first fired at the American base.

Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for Western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that the president needs to prop up his government, increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban.