The losing of hearts and minds

Citizens are becoming disenchanted with government and the forces that support it as non-combatant casualties continue to rise.

Aziz Azizi stands inside the room where villagers say Afghan and foreign forces killed four of his relatives, including two of his grandchildren.

HOOT KHAIL, Kabul // Exactly who carried out the raid and why might always be a matter of dispute. But the immediate result of the night in question is clear: a young family was now dead. "They entered by climbing over the walls with ladders and did not knock on the door or ask for permission. In total there were more than 70 soldiers, including Afghans and foreigners. I couldn't calculate the exact numbers because they handcuffed me and covered my head with fabric," according to Said Mohammed.

"They used some kind of hand grenades inside the rooms. You can go and have a look at the holes in the walls from the bullets and shrapnel. As soon as they entered they just opened fire, which is crazy." Three people were initially killed in the attack at Hoot Khail, a village on the eastern edge of Kabul city. Another died in hospital soon afterwards, according to residents. They were Mr Mohammed's 24-year-old son, his grandsons - aged one and two - and his 24-year-old daughter-in-law.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force and the US-led coalition have denied any involvement. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's intelligence service issued a statement to local media saying the raid had foiled a bomb plot. "What I want from the coalition forces and the government, they can't do for me. Can they give me back my son? Can they give me back my daughter-in-law? Can they give me back my grandchildren?" Mr Mohammed said.

"I want the government to punish those who are responsible for this crime. And I tell them that if similar crimes are happening in other parts of Afghanistan, then more people will oppose the government and the forces that support it. The number of insurgents will go higher and higher," he said. Innocent lives are not all that was lost here. Hearts and minds were also shattered in the early hours of Sept 1. At a time when the issue of civilian casualties is causing anger across the country, the damage done in Hoot Khail was immeasurable.

Even if a bomb plot was stopped, whoever carried out the raid has created a new set of enemies that it might have to fight further down the line. Aziz Azizi, a nephew of Mr Mohammed who lives in the same village, tried to reach his relatives when he heard their home was being attacked. Soldiers blocked his efforts, he claims. "When we finally got to my uncle's house we were faced with the dead bodies of his son and grandsons. They had shot his daughter-in-law and taken her away with the little baby she was still hugging," he said.

That day, hundreds of villagers staged a protest on Jalalabad Road, the main street running east out of the capital. The bodies of the two dead children were put on show. The house that was raided is, like all Pashtun homes in rural areas, a large compound surrounded by high walls. There is a yard for keeping animals and storing crops, and the room where the victims slept overlooks this. Its front window is now smashed and bullet holes and other marks scar the insides.

Mr Mohammed has two sons left. He said he as well as his two boys were all detained briefly, but released without charge. "Where is the proof that shows me or my sons were keeping explosives material at our home and making bombs? If that evidence existed they would have been fair to kill my family and they could put me on trial," he said. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is carrying out an investigation into the raid. Ahmad Nader Nadery, a commissioner for the AIHRC, said preliminary findings indicated local intelligence agents were involved, but not foreign troops.

Either way, Hoot Khail is just one example of a growing problem that could ultimately be the undoing of any remaining hopes for peace in this country. It came after the United Nations found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians - including 60 children - died in an air strike in the western province of Herat. Afghans are now comparing Nato and US forces unfavourably with the Soviets who so brutally occupied their land in the 1980s.

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