Growing anger as U.S. accused of being behind Madrasa attacks....

[marmar]

Growing Anger As US Accused of Being Behind Madrasa Attacks
· School was not a front for al-Qaida, say protesters
· Taliban can only gain from situation, say experts

by Declan Walsh

Threats of bloody retribution and accusations of American involvement erupted across Pakistan's tribal areas yesterday after the missile strike that killed 80 people in a radical madrasa.
An estimated 20,000 tribesmen crowded into Khar, six miles from the school that was shredded by air strikes on Monday. Cries of "Down with America" rang out as radical clerics addressed the turbaned protesters, many of whom brandished Kalashnikovs or rocket launchers.

"Our jihad will continue, God willing," thundered Maulana Faqir Muhammad, a firebrand preacher with links to al-Qaida. "And our people will go to Afghanistan to oust American and British forces."

Inayat ur Rehman claimed to have a "squad of suicide bombers" waiting to kill Pakistani soldiers, imitating Iraqi attacks on Americans. When he asked if the crowd would support the measure, the tribesmen replied with a unison "Yes".

The protesters claimed that Monday's strike in Chingai village had killed innocent religious students, not international terrorists. But the Pakistani government insisted the school was a front for an al Qaida meeting facility.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the madrasa had frequently been visited by Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and by Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, an Egyptian militant who is suspected to have masterminded last summer's alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic airliners.

But he said neither was at the madrasa at the time of Monday's attack, Associated Press reported.

The Khar rally was the largest of several across North West Frontier, Sindh and Punjab provinces, where American flags and effigies of George Bush were burned. .....

The complete article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1101-03.htm

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. I gotta wonder why they attacked a school.

Were there no weddings last weekend?