<p>Gunmen on Tuesday attacked an Afghan memorial service for 16 villagers killed by a US soldier, shooting dead a member of the Afghan military and wounding a policeman in a hail of gunfire.<br /><br /></p>.<p>It was the first deadly violence linked to the aftermath of Sunday’s killings that the Taliban had vowed to avenge and US officials had warned could lead to a surge in anti-American violence in the war-torn country.<br /><br />Two of President Hamid Karzai’s brothers were in the delegation from Kabul, along with provincial government officials, a local reporter at the scene in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province told AFP.<br /><br />“There was an armed attack on them from a distance and the firing continued for about 10 minutes,” he said.<br /><br />“Bullets were coming like rain on us,” another witness said. The interior ministry later confirmed that one Afghan soldier died.<br /><br />“One or more enemy were hiding there. When the delegation arrived they fired — one soldier is dead and a policeman is injured,” ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.<br /><br />There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban had vowed revenge after a US soldier walked off his base in the early hours of Sunday, broke into three houses and killed 16 people — mainly women and children.<br /><br />The dignitaries had left the area, with some heading back to Kandahar, about 45 km away, while others remained to continue an investigation into Sunday’s shootings, a member of the delegation said.<br /><br />‘Oppression’<br /><br />In the capital, Karzai met families from Kapisa, a province just north of Kabul, and again condemned Sunday’s killings as “an oppression”. The murders were the latest in a series of actions by troops that provoked outrage in Afghanistan, and comes weeks after the burning of Qurans sparked riots that killed 40 people.<br /><br />In eastern Afghanistan, about 400 university students chanting “Death to America — Death to Obama” took to the streets of Jalalabad, in the first protest against the US army sergeant’s killing spree.</p>
<p>Gunmen on Tuesday attacked an Afghan memorial service for 16 villagers killed by a US soldier, shooting dead a member of the Afghan military and wounding a policeman in a hail of gunfire.<br /><br /></p>.<p>It was the first deadly violence linked to the aftermath of Sunday’s killings that the Taliban had vowed to avenge and US officials had warned could lead to a surge in anti-American violence in the war-torn country.<br /><br />Two of President Hamid Karzai’s brothers were in the delegation from Kabul, along with provincial government officials, a local reporter at the scene in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province told AFP.<br /><br />“There was an armed attack on them from a distance and the firing continued for about 10 minutes,” he said.<br /><br />“Bullets were coming like rain on us,” another witness said. The interior ministry later confirmed that one Afghan soldier died.<br /><br />“One or more enemy were hiding there. When the delegation arrived they fired — one soldier is dead and a policeman is injured,” ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.<br /><br />There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban had vowed revenge after a US soldier walked off his base in the early hours of Sunday, broke into three houses and killed 16 people — mainly women and children.<br /><br />The dignitaries had left the area, with some heading back to Kandahar, about 45 km away, while others remained to continue an investigation into Sunday’s shootings, a member of the delegation said.<br /><br />‘Oppression’<br /><br />In the capital, Karzai met families from Kapisa, a province just north of Kabul, and again condemned Sunday’s killings as “an oppression”. The murders were the latest in a series of actions by troops that provoked outrage in Afghanistan, and comes weeks after the burning of Qurans sparked riots that killed 40 people.<br /><br />In eastern Afghanistan, about 400 university students chanting “Death to America — Death to Obama” took to the streets of Jalalabad, in the first protest against the US army sergeant’s killing spree.</p>