Calls for a more rapid withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan have escalated after a US soldier reportedly walked more than a mile from his base, broke into three separate houses, and attacked families as they slept, killing 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children. Villagers say he then gathered 11 bodies and set them on fire, including the bodies of four girls younger than six. The attack comes as the United States and Afghanistan are negotiating the Strategic Partnership Agreement, the framework for US involvement in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014. "We feel that surely governments need to resolve this conflict through diplomacy and move away from the failed military strategy that has resulted in all that we are witnessing today," says the Kabul-based peace activist who goes by the name "Hakim." He is the coordinator for Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.