Afghans protest over civilian deaths for third day

By Noor Rahman

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Burning an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush and chanting anti-U.S. slogans, hundreds of Afghans staged a third day of protests on Tuesday over the killing of civilians by U.S.-led coalition forces.

The police chief for the western province of Herat, Sayed Shafiq Fazli, said 30 civilians had been killed in the past several days by U.S.-led forces, adding to pressure on President Hamid Karzai over civilian casualties as coalition forces hunt for Taliban insurgents.

Tuesday's protests were in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where up to six civilians died on Sunday in the second killing of civilians in the region by U.S.-led coalition troops in less than two months.

The protestors, mostly students, briefly blocked a main road into the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and repeated calls for Karzai to step down.

"Karzai should go. He has no power and he can't serve us," said one student, referring to Karzai's repeated calls for Western troops to avoid civilian casualties.

"We do not want American forces. They should go. Death to America," another chanted, before the protest ended peacefully under a tight police watch.

A powerful tribe in the province, the Shinwar, on Monday vowed not to allow U.S.-led forces and troops under a separate U.S.-led NATO command into their district to hunt the Taliban.

Neighbours of the dead and Nangarhar officials said those killed in the raid on Sunday were civilians, including three women. But the U.S. military said four were Taliban fighters and civilian casualties were a woman and a teenage girl killed in crossfire.