Thousands of protesters attacked the abandoned US embassy compound in the Afghan capital yesterday, setting vehicles ablaze and ripping down the US seal above the entrance. Meanwhile, American and Pakistani officials reached broad accord on a plan for attacks on bases inside Afghanistan, Pakistani sources said.
In northern Afghanistan, heavy new fighting was reported as an opposition alliance pressed on with its bid to seize territory from fighters of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic movement that governs the country.
PHOTO: AFP
The demonstration in the Afghan capital, Kabul, was the largest anti-American protest since the crisis sparked by the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. The US' chief suspect in the attacks is Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile who has been sheltered for the past five years by the Taliban.
Shouting "Long Live Osama!" and "Death to America!" the protesters burned a US flag and an effigy of US President George W. Bush before storming the old embassy compound. The building has been abandoned since 1988.
Gray smoke billowed into the sky after about five vehicles were set afire in the embassy compound, and a several men used hammers to remove the large circular US seal above the front entrance. Taliban authorities eventually dispersed the protesters above the door, and the vehicle fires were put out.
In Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, senior Pakistani sources said Pakistani and US defense and intelligence officials had reached broad agreement on an anti-terror program that included a plan to attack bases in Afghanistan, but that some sticking points remained.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said both sides want to minimize the use of ground forces in any strike. They also said some differences had emerged during talks that began Monday between high-ranking Pakistani officials and an American delegation including senior defense and intelligence representatives.
The points of disagreement include whether or not to lend support to the opposition alliance, something that Pakistan has expressed public misgivings over. Other points of contention: what action is warranted against Pakistan-based militant groups; and whether or not the UN should approve any operation against Afghanistan.
Some differences were resolved Tuesday when the US delegation members held a 40-minute meeting with Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, the sources said without specifying which points had been resolved.
However, banking sources said the State Bank of Pakistan ordered banks to freeze assets of 27 groups suspected of terrorist links. They include two Pakistan-based groups -- the Al-Rashid Trust and the Harkat ul-Mujahideen, a militant group fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
A final round of US-Pakistani talks was taking place Wednesday in Islamabad to try to iron out remaining differences. The discussions were to have ended Tuesday, but were extended.
Anti-government protests have been held in cities across Pakistan since Musharraf pledged to support US military action in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, attackers opened fire and tossed a grenade at hundreds of people gathering in Karachi for what would have been the first public meeting supporting Musharraf. At least 12 people were injured, police and witnesses said. The assailants fled, and police said they didn't know who they were.
In northern Afghanistan, new battles broke out in the provinces of Samangan and Balkh between Taliban and opposition fighters. Mohammed Ashraf Nadeem, a spokesman for the opposition's northern alliance, said both sides used artillery but that neither had managed to take over new territory.
Nadeem, reached by telephone from Kabul, said Taliban had rushed 3,000 new troops to the region from Kandahar, the southern city where the Taliban are based.
No casualty toll was immediately available, and it was not possible to independently confirm his account of the fighting.
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