Afghan students burned an American flag and shouted slogans against the US military yesterday, as protests at reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay spread to the capital.
A day after riots in an eastern city left four people dead, more than 200 young men marched from a dormitory block near Kabul University chanting "Death to America!" and carrying banners including one stating: "Those who insult the Koran should be brought to justice."
At the entrance to the university, a man with a clipped beard and spectacles read a resolution calling on US President George W. Bush to apologize and opposing long-term US military bases in Afghanistan.
PHOTO: AFP
About two dozen students clambered onto the roof of nearby building and burned a US flag to applause and cries of "God is great!" from the crowd below. Dozens of police -- some armed with sticks, others with rifles -- looked on.
Ahmad Shah, a political sciences undergraduate, said the students had decided to protest after hearing of the deaths on Wednesday.
"America is our enemy and we don't want them in Afghanistan," Shah said as the students ended their protest and returned to classes on Thursday morning. "When they insult our holy book they have insulted us."
Police said 150 students staged a similar brief demonstration at another high school in the city, but reported no violence.
On Wednesday, police and government troops opened fire in the eastern city of Jalalabad after a protest by more than 1,000 people turned into a riot and the biggest outpouring of anger at the US since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Four people were reported killed and 71 wounded, including six police officers. Government buildings and the offices of several relief organizations were looted and burned. The city was quiet yesterday.
Peaceful demonstrations have been reported in at least four other Afghan provinces.
The source of anger was a brief report in the May 9 edition of Newsweek magazine that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed Korans on toilets in order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Hardline Islamic parties in neighboring Pakistan have called for protests today. The Pakistani government said at the weekend it was "deeply dismayed" over the report, which Pentagon and White House officials said would be investigated.
Many of the 520 inmates in Guantanamo are Pakistanis and Afghans captured after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who travels to Washington later this month to seek long-term American military and economic aid, has called repeatedly for all the Afghan prisoners to be sent home.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS