KABUL – KABUL (AP) — Hundreds of people protested Thursday in the streets of eastern Afghanistan after a military raid resulted in the death of an Afghan lawmaker's brother-in-law.
Safiya Sidiqi, the member of parliament whose brother-in-law was killed, said family members told her that about 100 NATO soldiers stormed her home, near the city of Jalalabad, about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
NATO said Thursday that a joint operation with Afghan forces killed "one armed individual while pursuing a Taliban facilitator" on Wednesday night in the same district. The person ignored demands in English and through an Afghan interpreter to lower his weapon, NATO said, without giving details on the person's identity.
Sidiqi said the soldiers broke the windows of her home, entered and pulled out 15 members of her family who were then photographed and fingerprinted. Eventually, she said, they opened fire on her brother-in-law.
She called the raid "barbaric."
Sidiqi did not respond specifically to questions about whether her brother-in-law was armed.
"Whatever happened it was the mistake of NATO," she said. "They have abused my family."
Police are investigating the raid, said Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Ghafor Khan.
Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. Public outrage over such deaths prompted the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal last year to tighten the rules on the use of airstrikes and other weaponry if civilians are at risk.
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Associated Press Writer Elizabeth A. Kennedy contributed to this report.
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