Anger grows at civilian deaths by US, Afghan forces

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — The workers were sleeping on the mountainside where they had spent a long day harvesting pine nuts in eastern Afghanistan. Some were in tents, others lay outside under the stars, when the U.S. airstrike tore into them.

Only hours before the Sept. 19 strike, the businessman who hired them had heard there was a drone over the mountain and called Afghanistan's intelligence agency to remind an official his workers were there — as he'd notified the agency days earlier.

"He laughed and said, 'Don't worry they are not going to bomb you,'" the businessman, Aziz Rahman, recalled.

Twenty workers were killed in the strike, including seven members of one family. A relative, Mohammed Hasan, angrily described body parts they found scattered on the ground, gesturing at his arm, his leg, his head.

"This is not their (Americans') first mistake," said Hasan. "They say 'sorry'. What are we supposed to do with 'sorry?' ... People now are angry. They are so angry with the foreigners, with this government."

Increasing civilian deaths in stepped-up U.S. airstrikes and operations by Afghan forces highlight the conundrum the U.S. military and its Afghan allies face, 18 years into the war: How to hunt down their Islamic State group and Taliban enemies, while keeping civilians safe and on their side.

Complaints have also grown over abuses and killings by a CIA-trained Afghan special intelligence force known as Unit 02. In the same province, Nangarhar, members of the Unit killed four brothers during a raid on their home. The brothers' hands were bound and they were shot in the head.

Former President Hamid Karzai, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, said he didn't want the U.S. troops for "one more minute" if deaths of civilians continued.

Some...