A night raid in eastern Afghanistan has killed a child for the second time in three days, NATO said Saturday, and a second boy died during protests.
NATO apologized for the killing, which occurred before dawn Saturday in the remote Hesarek district of Nangahar province, considered a Taliban stronghold.
District Gov. Abdul Khalid told The New York Times: "American forces did an operation and mistakenly killed a fourth-grade student; he had gone to sleep in his field and had a shotgun next to him. People keep shotguns with them for hunting, not for any other purposes."
The 15-year-old victim was the son of an Afghan soldier, said Noor Alam, headmaster of his school.
In the morning, more than 200 people gathered in Narra, the boy's village, and marched on town hall with his body.
Some of the men were armed and clashed with police, who opened fire, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding at least one other person, Khalid said.
"The police had to defend themselves; they fired warning shots," he said.
On Thursday, another NATO night raid in Nangahar killed a 12-year-old girl and her uncle, a policeman.