US Army sergeant kills 16 in Kandahar, provoking outrage in Afghanistan and retaliation threats; Personal revenge likely motivation, theorizes Pentagon; Bodies found in street after Homs masscare – but who's to blame? Japan struggling to rebuild one year on from tsunami and quake; Signs of weakness in Chinese economy; Pakistan wants to talk to terrorists; and more

Top of the Agenda: US Sergeant Kills Afghan Civilians

A US Army Sergeant allegedly killed at least sixteen Afghan civilians (NYT) deliberately in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar Province on Sunday, prompting threats of retaliation by the Taliban. US forces reportedly took the perpetrator into custody. The incident is likely to compound already strained US-Afghan relations, which were pushed to new lows after it was revealed that NATO soldiers had burned Qurans at a US-run air base north of Kabul. Both the US and Afghan governments condemned yesterday's attack, while Western personnel in Afghanistan braced for a potentially violent backlash.

Analysis

"Early signs suggest that the repeated killings of US troops had become too much for one of their own, who apparently tried to exact his own perverse revenge, Pentagon officials theorize. Does it represent a turning point? It surely bruises, if not breaks, the trust necessary for the US to continue its mission of training enough Afghan security forces to let the US leave by 2015," writes TIME's Mark Thompson.

"The NATO command needs to determine what happened in Kandahar--quickly--and take remedial action to ensure it cannot happen again. Coming right after the unintentional desecration of Qurans and the deaths of several NATO soldiers from rogue Afghan soldiers, this latest tragedy will further inflame anti-foreign sentiment in Afghanistan," writes Bruce Riedel for the Daily Beast.

"If apologies are insulting to Afghan intelligence, the psychiatric argument is pathetic. Explaining the sergeant's shooting spree and the horrific killing of 16 civilians, including nine children, and badly injuring others isn't the culmination of mere mental distress," writes al-Jazeera's Marwan Bishara.

 

PACIFIC RIM

Japan Marks Year Since Earthquake and Tsunami

Japan marked Sunday the first anniversary of a devastating earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear crisis that left close to twenty thousand people dead or missing (JapanTimes). The disaster, for which recovery efforts are ongoing, triggered an international backlash against nuclear power.

One year after Japan's triple disasters, questions persist about the ability of the world's third-largest economy to rebound and how its struggling political system can mount serious reforms, writes CFR's Sheila Smith in this Expert Brief.

CHINA: The country reported a larger-than-expected trade deficit of $31.5 billion (WSJ) for February after nearly a decade of running large trade surpluses. The news came days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reduced China's growth target to 7.5 percent for 2012.

 

ELSEWHERE:

Massacre in Homs shows bodies left in street

Pakistani offer talks with terrorists

Women at the centre of Euro crisis have different solutions

 

This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org.