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US troops shot dead six Afghan civilians in two separate incidents in the eastern province of Kunar on Tuesday, an Afghan news agency said quoting Afghan government sources.
There was no independent confirmation of the incidents reported by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) on Wednesday.
The AIP report said four of the six were killed on Tuesday evening when US troops opened fire on a vehicle near Asadabad, the Kunar provincial capital, after its driver apparently failed to stop when signaled.
It quoted unnamed Afghan government sources as saying that those killed were relatives of a prominent local commander, named as Matiullah.
AIP said that two more Afghans were killed by US firing in a separate unrelated incident in the province on the same day. It gave no further details of this incident.
AIP said hundreds of US troops were stationed in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan, helping the Afghan authorities in its campaign to recover weapons from civilians.
Hundreds of Afghan civilians have been reported killed by US fire since Washington launched a military campaign against Afghanistan's former Taliban government and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which is blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
(China Daily August 8, 2002)
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