Three Afghans wounded in Parwan riot

PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Aug. 15) – Three Afghans were wounded today during a riot in the Pul-e-Sayad village of Bagram District, Parwan.

The injured were part of a crowd of rioters who were throwing baseball size and larger rocks at U.S. forces escorting a local contractor to an Afghan Ministry of Defense base.  After numerous attempts were made to stop the rock throwing, in which servicemembers were injured, six shots were fired by a coalition soldier in self defense.

An ISAF offer of medical assistance to treat the wounded was declined by the riot leader.  The condition of the victims is unknown.

A land ownership dispute between the MoD and a local villager is believed to be the cause of the rioting.

“The land dispute is clearly an Afghan government issue that must be settled in order to resolve the ongoing concern of Afghans from the village of Sayad,” said Col. William F. Roy, commanding officer for Task Force Wolverine.

"While we respect the rights of all Afghan citizens to dispute their claims, attacks on both Afghan contractors and our Soldiers cannot be tolerated,” said Roy.  “We have not, and will not deliberately target innocent civilians.  We will investigate this incident to determine if there are any additional ways we can prevent civilian casualties in the future while continuing to protect our forces.”