- The Afghan Taliban criticizes "sick minded American savages"
- It vows to exact revenge for the killing of 16 people by an American soldier
- The soldier is now in custody as investigators seek to establish what motivated him
- The attack has fueled concerns of fresh unrest following recent riots over Quran burnings
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Afghan Taliban said Monday that its fighters would exact revenge for 16 people left dead after an American soldier went on a house-to-house shooting spree in two villages a day earlier.
Describing U.S. forces as "sick minded American savages," the Taliban said in a statement on its website that it would mete out punishment for the "barbaric actions." The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, has battled the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan for a decade.
U.S. officials have expressed shock and sadness over the attack, while Afghan leaders have angrily condemned it. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan called it an "unforgivable" crime, noting that nine of the dead were children.
The killings have fueled fears of intensified ire directed at international forces in the country following deadly riots over the burning of Qurans by U.S. troops late last month.
The soldier, an army staff sergeant, acted alone and turned himself in after opening fire on civilians, according to officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. He is now in U.S. custody as investigators try to establish what motivated him.
The attacker's mental stability and medical history are among "the things the investigators are looking at," said Capt. John Kirby, an ISAF spokesman.
"This was a soldier who had been in the army some time, had deployed before." Kirby said. "This the wasn't his first deployment. But with respect to specific motives, we just can't say right now."
U.S. President Barack Obama called the killings "tragic and shocking," and offered his condolences to the Afghan people in a phone call to Karzai, the White House said.
But his comments appeared unlikely to soothe the outrage among Afghans.
"The Afghan people can withstand a lot of pain," said Prince Ali Seraj, the head of the National Coalition for Dialogue with the Tribes of Afghanistan. "They can withstand collateral damage. They can withstand night raids. But murder is something that they totally abhor, and when that happens, they really want justice."
The killings took place in the district of Panjwai, about 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's major city, according to Karzai's office. The dead included four men, three women and nine children, it said, while five people were wounded.
The wounded Afghans were being treated in one of ISAF's facilities. The allied command did not give its own estimate of casualties.
There were no military operations in the area, either on the ground or in the air, at the time, according to two senior ISAF officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
A U.S. military official said that the suspect is from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. The official said the soldier is assigned to a Special Forces unit.
Afghan troops spotted the soldier leaving his combat outpost around 3 a.m. Sunday and notified their American counterparts, according to ISAF. The U.S. military did an immediate headcount, found the soldier was missing and dispatched a patrol to go look for him. The patrol met him as he returned and took him into custody.
In a statement issued by the White House, Obama said the U.S. military will "get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible."
White House response to shooting spree
He said the attack "does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan."
In a separate statement, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was "shocked and saddened" by the attack and said the suspect was "clearly acting outside his chain of command."
But Seraj, a member of Afghanistan's former royal family, said the killings are likely to play into the hands of the Taliban.
"They are really going to milk this for all it's worth," Seraj said, adding, "This is playing right into their program of psychological warfare against the Afghan people."
Seraj called for a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation into the killings, saying Afghans will want to see "quick and decisive justice."
Kandahar and the surrounding region is the home of the Taliban, and eight of the 69 coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year died in the province.
Kirby said that although the attack Sunday was "very, very tragic," it wasn't "having a major effect across the country with respect to the mission our troops are doing every day."
Taliban link attack to Quran burning
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, following al Qaeda's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. The invasion quickly toppled the Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan and had allowed al Qaeda to operate from its territory. But the militia soon regrouped and launched an insurgent campaign against the allied forces and a new government led by Karzai.
The No. 1 U.S. target in the conflict, al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a commando raid in neighboring Pakistan in May 2011. American and allied combat troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by 2014, and Karzai has been increasingly critical of the allied force.
Tensions ramped up dramatically in February, after a group of U.S. soldiers burned copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book, that had been seized from inmates at the American-run prison at Bagram Air Base. American officials from Obama down called the burning an accident and apologized for it, but riots left dozens dead, including six American troops. Hundreds more Afghans were wounded.
The war has cost the lives of nearly 1,900 Americans and just under 1,000 more allied troops to date.
Amid the uproar over the attack, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany arrived in Afghanistan on Monday.
Merkel is spending a day visiting German troops in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, according to the German government's press office.
CNN's Sara Sidner, John Dear and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.
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