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Afghan students protest Danish cartoon

Thousands of Afghan students blocked a highway and threatened attacks on foreign troops yesterday in the latest protest against the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish papers.

Yesterday's protest near the city of Jalalabad on the highway leading to Pakistan followed violent demonstrations a day earlier in the western city of Herat against the cartoon and a film on the Koran by a right wing Dutch politician.

Chanting anti-Western slogans, the marchers in Jalalabad burnt Danish and Dutch flags demanding the cartoonist and the politician, who plans to release his film this month, be put on trial.

Protesters shouted "Death to America" and "Long live al-Qaeda."

"We don't want Dutch and Danish forces in Afghanistan. If our government does not kick them out, we will continue our demonstrations until they leave Afghanistan," said one protester, university student Qari Ibrahim. "If these forces do not leave, we are prepared to carry out suicide attacks against them."

They also demanded that Kabul freeze its ties with the Dutch and Danish governments and expel troops from the two countries who are operating under NATO's command in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government has called the reprinting of the cartoon an attack against Islam and one official has warned the move would swell the ranks of al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies.

Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders is expected to release his film, thought to be critical of the Koran, later this month. Wilders has given few details about his project, but in the past he has been criticized by some Muslims for calling the Koran a "fascist" book that "incites violence."

The cartoon -- one of 12 that prompted bloody riots in many Muslim countries in 2006 -- was republished by a number of Danish papers last month to show solidarity with the cartoonist after three men were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill him.

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