Afghans Rally Against Civilian Deaths

The aftermath of the March 4 fighting in Jalalabad (epa) March 6, 2007 -- 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.

(with material from AP, AFP)