(30 Dec 2009)
1. Wide shot of protest against civilian deaths in military operation in Kunar
2. Mid shot of protesters chanting (Pashto): "Death to Karzai''s puppet government! Death to the parliament!"
3. Wide shot protesters, one holding up effigy of US President Barack Obama
4. Police vehicle drives by
5. Group of police near protest
6. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Qari Hamidullah, protester
"We want the Afghanistan government to remove the foreign forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible. If they don''t comply with our demand, we will lay down our pens and take up rockets and go to the mountains and fight against the Americans and their supporters."
7. Mid shot of effigy of Obama held aloft
8. Mid shot of protesters stamping on US flags
9. Protesters burning US president Barak Obama''s effigy and US flag
10. Wide shot of protest, police at scene
11. Protesters burning effigy
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of angry Afghans protested in Kabul and Jalalabad on Wednesday against the deaths of 10 people including school children.
It happened during a military operation in the province of Kunar on Sunday.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, chanting slogans against President Karzai''s government, and burning an effigy of US President Barack Obama and an American flag.
Earlier, the head of a presidential delegation investigating the deaths of the 10 people in eastern Afghanistan concluded on Wednesday that civilians - including schoolchildren - were killed in the attack, which involved foreign troops, disputing NATO reports that the dead were insurgents.
Asadullah Wafa, a senior adviser to President Hamid Karzai, told The Associated Press that eight schoolchildren between the ages of 12 and 14 were among the dead in the Narang district of Kunar province.
A NATO official had said initial reports from troops involved in the fighting on Sunday indicated that those killed were insurgents - all young males.
Civilian deaths are one of the most sensitive issues for foreign troops in Afghanistan, sparking widespread resentment and undermining the war on the Taliban, especially with the controversial 37,000 US and NATO extra troops being deployed to the war-ravaged country.
Wafa said that he was convinced that all those killed in the Kunar incident were innocent civilians.
The bodies had already been buried by the time Wafa''s team arrived. A joint Afghan-NATO investigation will continue to investigate what happened.
Wafa said the villagers demanded from the 10-member delegation of government officials and lawmakers that informants who supplied the wrong target must be punished by a court.
Karzai said in a statement on Wednesday that he had talked to the relatives of the Kunar victims to express his condolences and pledge to bring to justice those responsible for the attack.
Colonel Wayne Shanks, spokesman for NATO''s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said at a news conference Wednesday that that allegations were being investigated together with Afghan authorities.
He said the force takes all such allegations seriously and goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.
The latest figures released by the United Nations show that 2,021 civilians died during clashes in the first 10 months of this year, up from 1,838 for the same period last year.
Taliban insurgents were blamed for 68 percent of the deaths this year - three times more than NATO forces, according to the U.N.
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