Caution in order after reports of shootings by coalition soldier in Afghanistan

For more than 3,000 years, Kabul has occupied a strategic location along Central and Southern Asian trade routes. In the late eighteenth century, Kabul was established as Afghanistan's capital. In this false-color satellite image vegetation appears fluorescent green, urban areas range in color from gray to black, and bare ground varies in color from beige to reddish brown. A mountain range, including Kohi Asamayi and Kohi Bini Hisar, snakes through the scene, running roughly northwest-southeast. (Photo and caption from CIA World Fact Book, U.S. Govnmt.)
Media are reporting that a U.S. soldier shot and killed civilians in Afghanistan. Most stories about this incident are currently sourced to officials in the government in Afghanistan. Some areas in the country have been destabilized by Taliban eager to regain control over the country’s government.

Most U.S. media accounts like one BBC story are based on statements from “senior local officials” whose tribal affiliations aren’t questioned by journalists. Agence France Presse quoted an elder from Najeeban village and a man who claimed some of the dead were his family.

Reuters did put the incident in a deeper political perspective:

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