Afghans Rally Against Civilian Deaths

Hundreds of Afghan students have rallied in the eastern city of Jalalabad to demand the withdrawal of foreign troops after two incidents claimed civilian lives, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The protesters shouted slogans against the "invading forces" and chanted "Death to Americans!"

"Our demands are: one, our parliament must make serious decisions about such a bad incident and if it can't, it should resign; two, the people responsible for the incident should be brought to justice as soon as possible; three, innocent Afghans should not be tortured for any reason; four, if such an incident is repeated in future, we will continue our protest; five, as we see foreign troops fail in bringing security to Afghanistan, they should leave Afghanistan," one student told RFE/RL.

The protests come after Afghan officials on March 5 said a NATO air strike had killed nine civilians in Kapisa Province, north of Kabul.

That followed the deaths of 10 civilians on March 4 in a clash between U.S. troops and insurgents near Jalalabad.

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