Fears incident will rekindle anti-US anger
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A US soldier reportedly walked off his base in southern Afghanistan at 02:00 Sunday 11 March and opened fire on Afghan civilians, possibly killing as many as 16 people, most of them children. Reports on the number of dead and injured conflict, as do local reports that there was more than one soldier, which US officials say is “wrong”. Early Sunday tthere were reportedly “multiple wounded”, according to the Guardian/AP in the UK, butlater reports that he had killed several people then appeared to be unfounded, according to Reuters and other new agencies, and by Sunday evening Swiss time the reports were changing again.
Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Sunday evening that they were trying to clarify the situation but could not confirm any numbers. Earlier in the day they issued a terse statement early Sunday: “A United States service member was detained today in connection to an incident that resulted in Afghan casualties in Kandahar province. This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved. US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), in cooperation with Afghan authorities, will investigate this incident and release additional information as appropriate.”
The incident follows weeks of tension over a 20 February incident where US soldiers burned the Koran at a US base due to what US officials have called “carelessness” rather than Islamaphobia. The US offered a formal apology and said the burning was an accident. Thirty Afghans and five US soldiers are reported to have been killed in protests and attacks in the wake of the incident, which has also sparked partisan debates in the US over the appropriateness of the apology.
Airolo, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 19-year-old soldier died while on a break during a football game at the Airolo boot camp for sanitary workers, the federal Department of Defense announced 26 November. His colleagues gave him first aid and CPR almost immediately, but were unable to revive him. He was in his fifth week of boot camp. The cause of death remains unknown.
To those of you who subscribe to our Google/Feedburner rss e-mail feed, please note that it failed to include several articles from Wednesday 15 July. We’re sorry that you missed them and unfortunately have no explanation for this, but here they are: EPFL mathematicians crack elliptical curve encryption problem, Vaud and Schumacher agree to small dock, shoreline group opposed, Alinghi accused by US club of secretly plotting with Intl Sailing Federation, C0ngo people fail to get Mobutu money, Soldier killed, another injured, in parachute crash
Altenstadt, Germany (GenevaLunch) – A Swiss soldier was killed and another injured in a parachuting accident that appears to have been due to the two crashing into each other. The injured man is in stable condition. The two men were participating in an international sports event.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss military officials announced 4 June that the body of a man found in the Aare River earlier in the week is that of the soldier who went missing 22 May.
