First Afghan protest over US soldier's rampage

Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad Tuesday to protest a rampage by a US soldier who killed 16 villagers, witnesses said. In the first street demonstrations since the mass killings on Sunday, about 400 protesters shouted "Death to America -- Death to (US President Barack) Obama", and called for the soldier to be tried in public in Afghanistan. Mass demonstrations last month over the burning of copies of the Koran at a US military turned violent, leading to about 40 deaths, and the US embassy has warned its citizens that similar protests could erupt over the shooting. The mob, carrying an effigy of Obama and banners with anti-US slogans, blocked the main highway from Jalalabad to the capital Kabul. "Jihad (holy war) is the only way to get the invading Americans out of Afghanistan," one banner read. The demonstration followed a call by parliament for the public trial of the shooter, who on Sunday walked off his base in southern Kandahar province and killed 16 villagers in their homes, nine of them children. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the soldier suspected of the killings could face the death penalty if convicted. The Pentagon chief told reporters aboard his plane en route to Kyrgyzstan that the soldier would be brought to justice under the US military legal code, which allows for the death penalty in some cases.