3 More Anti-U.S. Demonstrators Killed in Protests - Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB8X33DN8E.html

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghans enraged by an alleged slur on Islam's holy book at a U.S. prison staged a third day of violent protests Thursday, burning an American flag in the capital and ransacking relief group offices to the south as demonstrations spread to neighboring Pakistan.
Officials said three more demonstrators were shot and killed in clashes with police, bringing the death toll to at least seven in the biggest anti-American protests in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 - and presenting a fresh challenge to efforts to stabilize the country.

While most of the protesters were students, officials suggested that elements opposed to Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government were stirring the violence, which has also targeted American troops and the United Nations.

The demonstrations could complicate President Hamid Karzai's plans to ask for military aid on a trip to Washington this month, a prospect that has stoked a previously muted debate on how long U.S. troops should stay to secure the country, still riven by a Taliban-led rebellion. That debate may play out in parliamentary elections this year.

[Cocoa]

1. Karzai say's it's not anti-American sentiment

burning American flags, burning Bush effigies, chanting "Death to America" but don't go saying it's anti-American sentiment.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-5-2005_pg4_17

“It is not anti-American sentiment ... it is a protest over the news of desecration of the Quran in Guantanamo,” said Karzai.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Yea, it sounds like they love America n/t

[bemildred]

3. "as demonstrations spread to neighboring Pakistan"

I'm sure Mushhead is thrilled by this new development.

The passive prose in this is a wonder:

"presenting a fresh challenge to efforts to stabilize the country"

"elements opposed to Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government were stirring the violence"

"The demonstrations could complicate President Hamid Karzai's plans to ask for military aid on a trip to Washington this month"

You would think they were discussing arrangements for a tea party.

[bemildred]

4. Anti-U.S. Protests Spread in Afghanistan and Pakistan

In the bloodiest single incident, the police fired on hundreds of tribesmen from Khogiani, a district in eastern Afghanistan, who were attempting to march in protest on Jalalabad, the town where 4 died and 60 were wounded on Wednesday. The police had blocked the tribesmen, many of whom were armed, 20 miles from the city and were ordered to fire into the air to disperse the crowd, said Fazel Muhammad Ibrahimi, the director of health in the province.

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Seeking to calm the passions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret for the loss of life and promised a full investigation of the accusations. "Disrespect for the holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be tolerated by the United States," Ms. Rice said in a surprise statement issued before an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee. The interrogators are accused of having placed copies of the Koran in a toilet to upset detainees, and in one case flushed the holy book down the toilet, a violation that is punishable by death in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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The United States military is still trying to analyze whether the violence is politically driven, instigated by outsiders or a sign of general public frustration with the slow pace of reconstruction in the country, said a spokesman, Col. James Yonts. Local governors might also be encouraging protests against the central government and its American backers to improve their own standing ahead of parliamentary elections in September, said Jandad SpinGhar, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Jalalabad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12cnd-afghan.html?pagewanted=1&oref=login

[alcuno]

5. It's things like the Newsweek story that really get people.

If true, it's a horrible thing for someone to have done and just the kind of incitement that really works.

[bemildred]

6. A match in a warehouse full of gasoline fumes.

Stay tuned.

[CHIMO]

7. Dangerous

May be time for UN/NATO to turn Kabul over to the Warlords.

[melnjones]

8. Three killed as Afghan protests over Koran spread

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20050512/wl_nm/religion_afghan_dc

LOGAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Demonstrations spread in Afghanistan on Thursday over a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, and officials said three protesters were killed.

Several hundred students shouting "Death to America" held a peaceful protest in the capital, Kabul, but elsewhere demonstrations turned violent, a day after four people were killed and 70 wounded in riots in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Angry villagers in a district southwest of Jalalabad, some of them armed, tried to march to the city but were blocked by police, officials and witnesses said.

Protesters threw stones at police and gunfire broke out, and two protesters were killed, said district chief Muhammad Omar.

"The protesters were armed but they didn't fire at police," said villager Shair Ali.

Newsweek magazine said in a recent issue that investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had found interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."
snip....

Outrageous. Not surprising, but outrageous.

[IChing]

9. Washington post reports even more

Afghan Protests Against the U.S. Gain Momentum

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 12 - Anti-American violence spread to 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and into Pakistan on Thursday as four more protesters died in a third day of demonstrations and clashes with the police.

Hundreds of students took part in three separate demonstrations here in the capital, where they burned an American flag, and a provincial office of CARE International was ransacked in a continuation of the most widespread protests against the American presence since the fall of the Taliban government more than three years ago.

In the most violent single incident, the police fired on hundreds of tribesmen from Khogiani, a district in eastern Afghanistan, who were trying to march in protest on Jalalabad, the town where four people died and 60 were wounded on Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/13/international/asia/13afghan.html?ex=1273636800&en=d457245cd9efa81a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[IChing]

10. Afghans won't take it from the Brits, Soviets or American imperalists.

I think that the new american century project is in trouble on getting those pipelines in for their greed.