Zeenews Bureau
Kabul: The Taliban have vowed revenge against the US after at least one American soldier shot to death 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan and burned their bodies.
The militant group said in a statement posted on their website on Monday that "sick minded American savages" committed the "blood-soaked and inhumane crime" in Panjwai district.
The Taliban would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr", they said in a statement on their website.
The US has said the shootings before dawn Sunday in two villages were carried out by a single American soldier, who is now in custody.
But Afghans have expressed doubt that a single soldier could have carried out the shootings in houses over a mile (2 kilometres) apart.
The United States has offered condolences to the families and pledged that action will be taken against anyone found guilty of the massacre.
Kandahar is considered the birthplace of the Taliban.
"A large number from amongst the victims are innocent children, women and the elderly, martyred by the American barbarians who mercilessly robbed them of their precious lives and drenched their hands with their innocent blood," the
Taliban said.
"The American `terrorists` want to come up with an excuse for the perpetrator of this inhumane crime by claiming that this immoral culprit was mentally ill.”
"If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenceless Afghans without giving a second thought."
(With PTI inputs)
