Tanks and troops guard Kabul after riots

“Who is ruining our city? We are very, very sad,” said shopkeeper Zalmai Mohammed, 25, near a hotel that had its windows smashed and shops that had been looted. “The government should shoot the rioters. This is so sad. Everything was burning.”

Meanwhile, the death toll from yesterday’s unrest rose to at least 11, most of them with gunshot wounds, according to three city hospitals where casualties were taken. Kabul Emergency Hospital said it had 66 wounded, all shot. Dozens of other wounded residents were at other hospitals.

An overnight curfew passed without incident and there were no reports of new violence, said General Zahir Azimi, the Defence Ministry spokesman.

“The army has control of the city. We have tanks in the city for the first time,” he said. “We have 2,000 troops at key places. Everything is calm.”

There were no sounds of gunfire or plumes of smoke coming from around the city, unlike yesterday when protesters chanting “Death to America!” marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed poice guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of the aid group CARE International.

The violence erupted after a convoy of US military vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars. Up to five people were killed in the crash. It wasn’t clear whether these deaths were in the tolls the hospitals reported.

The US military said one of the trucks in the convoy experienced a mechanical failure.

As the violence eased late yesterday, embassies sent out convoys of armoured vehicles to pluck their nationals from homes and buildings across the city and bring them to foreign military bases where they spent the night.

As residents emerged onto the streets early today, many were angry at the failure of the security forces to stop the violence.

“Where were all the security forces yesterday?” asked Asadullah Chelsea, who owns a supermarket popular with foreigners. “I have lost thousands of dollars of stock.”

Foreigners were staying off the streets today.

Yesterday, an Associated Press reporter saw several demonstrators pull a man who appeared to be a Westerner from a civilian vehicle and beat him. The man escaped and ran to a line of police, who fired shots over the heads of the demonstrators.

Other Westerners escaped the protesters by driving at high speed and refusing to stop when the rioters tried to block their way.

The US military expressed regret for any deaths and injuries caused by the crash and said there would be an investigation.

Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the US military.

Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard road rules.

The US military says such tactics are necessary to protect the troops from attack.

Patience with the 23,000 US soldiers and other foreign troops in Afghanistan is also fraying over recent deaths of civilians, including at least 16 people killed by an airstrike targeting Taliban fighters in a southern village last week.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm, branding rioters “agitators” and saying in a national address that Afghans must stand against those who loot and destroy property.

The riot was the worst in Kabul since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001.

Included among the string of buildings ransacked was a Chinese brothel and the offices of a French aid group, ACTED, which said its premises were plundered.

One of its French aid workers suffered cuts on his arm when rioters attacked his car and smashed a window, the group’s head, Marie-Pierre Caley, said in Paris.