THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

It helps if you have good intelligence about your target. On Christmas Eve a NATO Special Forces team with Afghan support was lacking that key element.

In the pre-dawn hours of Christmas Eve day, a specialized NATO team, joined by 18 Afghan colleagues, converged on the Kabul office complex where they suspected that two vehicles parked outside were packed with explosives in preparation for a Christmastime attack on the U.S. Embassy.

As the military force closed in on the parking lot filled with Tiger International vehicles, the U.S.-led military said that gunmen in the building opened fire. The short firefight ended with two Afghan security guards bleeding to death on the asphalt.

After seeing the NATO version of events, Sakhizada and his company Sunday accused the special forces of firing first when its Afghan guards came out of the building to find out what was going on.

While heading downstairs past a glass window overlooking the parking lot, Sakhizada said the soldiers opened fire and seriously wounded one of his security guards.

After forcing the surviving guards to surrender, the NATO-led team scoured the area and came up with no explosives, no car bombs and no evidence that the company was involved in a plan to attack on the U.S. Embassy.

Sakhizada said the soldiers apologized after finding nothing and cautioned the company not to speak to reporters. But company officials refused to remain quiet.

“Saying sorry is not so easy,” said Mohammed Faird Wafah, a friend of Sakhizada family who came to visit the office on Sunday. “Afghan blood is not so cheap. When something like this happens in the center of Kabul, what do you think happens in the more remote provinces?”

Winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans, one bullet at a time.