amodernmanifesto:

Australian forces hunting the Afghan National Army fugitive who killed three Australian soldiers last week have shot dead two people in a raid on the village of Sola in the southern province of Uruzgan. According to various news reports, the soldiers killed the 70-year-old imam of the village and his 30-year-old son, and detained 12 other people. A woman was among those detained, provoking outrage among the ethnic Pashtun tribesmen whose village was invaded. The raid took place on August 31, three days after the deaths of the Australian soldiers in a “green on blue” incident.

The assault on the village was a neo-colonial act of collective punishment, designed to terrorise Sola’s inhabitants for their alleged support for Sergeant Hekmatullah, the man accused of killing the Australian troops.

Sardar Mohammed told the Australian newspaper that Australian forces arrived in non-military vehicles Friday night while most of the village’s inhabitants were praying at the mosque. “They brought everyone out of the mosque and houses and tied their hands,” he said. “It was about 20 to 25 people and they started beating them a little bit … As soon as they captured me, they put a hood over my eyes,” he said.