Jalalabad, Afghanistan. As the Taliban cranks up its summer offensive on the American forces, those caught in between pick up the price as Afghan civilians get killed in the American occupation of the nation.
There were three Afghan civilians who were killed early on Monday morning when American troops opened fire after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, an official in eastern Nangarhar province said. The US military command in Kabul said it was investigating the reports.
Caught with nowhere to hide, a man and his two sons were killed at their home in Ghani Khel, after the bomb blast hit them, the American forces then started shooting and killed one man and two children nearby. Excited villagers stated.
American collateral civilian casualties have running at near record highs as fighting spreads to more areas of Afghanistan, according to the United Nations. The numbers are expected to only grow as summer sees the active season for Taliban and ISIS attacks on American occupation forces.
The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani generally has been less vocal than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, in publicly criticising the US military when troops are involved in incidents where civilians are killed, he has little power internally and must answer to his American State Department handlers.
Locally on Saturday, three American soldiers were killed and one wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in Nangarhar, where elite US troops have been helping Afghan forces in occupation duties, while American corporations mine resources.
There was an American air strike in southern Afghanistan Sunday that killed at least three Afghan policemen and wounded several others during a joint operation by Afghan and NATO special forces.
The United States and NATO expect to bring in another 25-50,000 troops over the next year to reinforce their occupation and pacification program inside the Southwest Asian nation.