Taliban Vow Revenge for Rogue U.S. Soldier Killings

The Taliban has vowed revenge for the deaths of Afghan civilians allegedly murdered by a rogue U.S. soldier.

In a statement on their website, the group promised to take revenge against the American savages for Sunday's bloody rampage which left 16 Afghans -- including nine children and three women -- dead.

An army Staff sergeant, said to be suffering some kind of mental breakdown, reportedly left his base in Panjway district, Kandahar province in the middle of the night, walked half a mile to a nearby village and shot the Afghan civilians in cold blood.

On its website, the Taliban said they would, take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.

They added American savages committed the blood-soaked and inhumane crime, according to Fox News.

If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenseless Afghans without giving a second thought, the statement added.

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Fox News the shooter, who handed himself in to authorities, is in his mid- thirties and is a father.

Capt. John Kirby added this was the suspect's first deployment in Afghanistan, but added he had already served two deployments in Iraq.

The incident comes just weeks after the accidental burning of Korans at an American military base in the country sparked a wave of violent protests that left scores of Afghans and six U.S. soldiers dead.

The U.S. has stepped up security at its bases and official outposts in anticipation of reprisal attacks, warning Americans in Afghanistan to take extra precautions.

On Monday the Afghan parliament demanded the soldier be put on trial in Afghanistan.

We seriously demand and expect that the government of the United States punish the culprits and try them in a public trial before the people of Afghanistan, the lower house of parliament said in statement, according to Agence-France Presse.

The shootings will further strain relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan as the two tentative allies seek to devise a workable partnership once U.S. troops leave the country sometime in 2014.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the incident tragic and shocking, and offered his condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and to the people of Afghanistan. But, as in the aftermath of the Koran burning, Obama's apology did little to temper the anger coming from as high a source as Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

[The] Kandahar incident was an intentional massacre and is an unforgivable act, Karzai said.