Thursday, May 22, 2008

Afghan police kill anti-US demonstrators - again

From veteran correspondent Declan Walsh:

Afghan anti-US protest leaves three dead
The Guardian

ISLAMABAD, May 23 - Two Afghans and a Nato soldier were killed yesterday during a violent protest in western Afghanistan against a US soldier who used the Qur'an for target practice.

A 1,000-strong crowd gathered outside a military base in remote Ghor province, throwing rocks and setting tents on fire, a Nato spokesman said.

The protesters were enraged by reports that a US sniper used the Islamic holy book for target practice on a shooting range outside Baghdad earlier this month. Afghan police opened fire on the crowd, killing two and wounding at least seven. A soldier from Lithuania was also killed, although it remains unclear who fired the shot.

The Ghor police chief, Shah Jahan Noori, said Taliban militants mingled among the protesters. "Among these people were rebels, who opened fire," he said, adding that 10 officers were also wounded... (link)
Deutsche Presse-Agentur has more:
... Similar demonstrations also took pace in Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan province on Thursday, witnesses said.

The protesters in Faizabad, the provincial capital, asked the Afghan government to end its political relations with the US and to expel US soldiers from Afghanistan, Ahmad Bari, one of the organizers of the demonstration said...

Hundreds of students in the northern province of Kunduz took to streets on Wednesday and chanted anti-US slogans, while in Kabul dozens of Afghan members of parliament walked out of the lower house of parliament on Tuesday in protest. (link)
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