US service member walks out of his base before dawn to shoot Afghan civilians

A U.S. service member walked out of his base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and started shooting Afghan civilians, Afghan and NATO officials said. There were widely varying reports of casualties.       

People were killed in the shooting spree in Kandahar province, Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said, though he did not provide numbers.           

Helicopters were circling overhead at Alkozai village in Panjwai district as a delegation from the governor's office arrived to determine exactly what happened, but details were still sketchy.       

A resident of Alkozai, where the shootings took place, told an Associated Press reporter that 16 people were killed as the U.S. service member went into three different houses and started shooting. The villager, Abdul Baqi, said he had not seen the bodies himself, but had talked to the family members of the dead.       

"When it was happening in the middle of the night we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again," Baqi said.       

NATO spokesman Justin Brockhoff said a U.S. service member had been detained as the alleged shooter and that the coalition had reports of "multiple wounded" but none killed. The wounded were evacuated to NATO medical facilities, he said.      

The service member was being held at a NATO base and U.S. forces are investigating the shooting in cooperation with Afghan authorities, Brockhoff said. He said it was not clear if the alleged shooter knew the victims.       

"This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved," NATO said in a statement.       

There were reports of protests in Panjwai following the shooting and the U.S. embassy warned travelers in Kandahar province to "exercise caution."          

AP