Afghan police kill "seven civilian boys" in border town

07/02/2010| IslamWeb

Seven Afghan boys were shot dead on Saturday by police who "mistook them for fighters", a provincial police official said.

The boys were collecting firewood when police opened fire on them in the border town of Spin Boldak, southern Kandahar province, Abdul Raziq, police commander for the town, said.

The police had been detained and were being questioned, he said.

The killing of civilians is a sensitive issue and President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly warned that civilian deaths sap support for his administration and for the presence of some 115,000 foreign troops in the country.

PHOTO CAPTION

Young boys stand near a burned oil tanker, which fire fighters extinguished after it was attacked early morning, in the outskirts of Peshawar, located in the Northwest Frontier Province February 1, 2010.

Reuters