Two killed, dozens hurt as security forces battle rioting Afghan students

[Judi Lynn]

Posted 5/11/2005 3:47 AM

Two killed, dozens hurt as security forces battle rioting Afghan students
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan police and U.S. troops opened fire Wednesday to control hundreds of rioting students angered at alleged abuses of the Quran at the U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, killing two protesters and injuring 40, officials said.
Shooting broke out in the eastern city of Jalalabad as demonstrators smashed the windows of cars and shops and threw stones at a passing convoy of American soldiers. Mobs also broke into U.N. compounds and burned two cars. No U.N. staff were reported hurt.

"They are very angry and are spread over all over the city," intelligence chief Sardar Shah told The Associated Press. "There are police, army and Americans shooting into the air .... We've tried to get control but I think it is impossible."

Deputy health chief Mohammed Ayub Shinwari said two protesters were killed and 40 injured. Many were being treated in Jalalabad hospital for bullet wounds, he said.
(snip/)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-05-11-afghan-riot_x.htm

[Lucky Luciano]

1. Democracy on the move! nt

[saigon68]

2. Freedom on the march

The right of dissent upheld and students murdered by NeoCon tools.

[Renew Deal]

10. These people really do love freedom.

;)

[NuttyFluffers]

3. *sigh* would saying 'i told you so' be redundant at this point?

what ever happened to the wisdom of 'think before you act'?

[varun]

4. Riots over US Koran 'desecration'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4535491.stm

At least 12 people are reported to have been injured after police opened fire to break up an angry protest in the Afghan city of Jalalabad.
Hundreds of students rioted over reports that the Koran was desecrated at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.

They chanted "Death to America" and smashed car windows and damaged shops.

A report in Newsweek magazine said that US personnel had flushed a copy of the Islamic holy book "down the toilet"...

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. I think it's going to be a hot summer in the ME.

[bluestateguy]

6. Yep

If Muslims in a Middle Eastern country flushed a Bible down the toilet and demeaned American Southern Baptists, I get the feeling the Falwell/Robertson/Dobson/Schlafly crowd would encourage rioting in a Muslim American community or in front of an American mosque.

[maddezmom]

7. Afghans riot over Koran report, 4 dead: official

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050511/wl_nm/religion_afghan_dc

[NNN0LHI]

8. Afghans riot over Koran report, 4 dead - official (Police open fire)

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5772639&cKey=1115810442000

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police opened fire on protesters on Wednesday in violent demonstrations which left four dead and dozens wounded after a report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran, a health official said.

U.S. troops stationed in the conservative Muslim city of Jalalabad, 130 km (80 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, were confined to base during the protest, witnesses said.

Government offices in Jalalabad were set on fire, shops looted, and U.N. buildings and diplomatic missions attacked as thousands took to the streets, witnesses and officials said.

Police fired to disperse crowds several times, witnesses said. Four people had been killed and 52 wounded, provincial health chief Fazel Mohammad Ibrahimi said after compiling information from three city hospitals.

[varun]

9. 80% of Pakistanis support Osama

and the number of supporters in Afghanistan is huge too.

And these are the "allies" on the WOT.

[Spazito]

11. Kick

*

[lebkuchen]

12. This will happen in the US again

When the draft is reinstated, we won't be far from another Kent State.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

13. Four dead, scores hurt in Afghan riot over reported US Koran abuse

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050511/1/3sgwt.html

Afghan troops were deployed on the streets of an eastern city after four people died and scores were injured in riots sparked by reports that US soldiers had desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.

Police in Jalalabad opened fire Wednesday to break up an enraged mob of several thousand people that torched the governor's house, the Pakistani consulate and several foreign aid agencies, police and witnesses told AFP.

As black smoke rose over the city, the crowd went on the rampage, chanting slogans including "Death to America" as well as burning the Stars and Stripes and effigies of US President George W. Bush, witnesses said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the riots showed the "inability" of the war-shattered country's institutions to deal with such situations, but added that the demonstrations at least meant that democracy was flourishing.

"Afghanistan's institutions, the police, the army, are not ready to handle protest and demos," Karzai said at NATO headquarters during an official visit to Brussels.

The US State Department said late Tuesday the Pentagon was investigating a report in Newsweek magazine that interrogators in Guantanamo, Cuba, kept copies of the Koran in toilets to annoy prisoners.

The unrest in Jalalabad began as a peaceful protest by medical university students but numbers swelled to between 5,000 and 10,000 and the demonstration descended into violence, witnesses and a local police source told


more....

[malmapus]

14. Yup way to win those hearts and minds Georgie boy

Well I give him this, he is a uniter. I think by the time he's done all the different Islamic factions and faiths will be united in believing we are in fact without a doubt the "great Satan", heck I'm starting to believe it too. :eyes:

[Moderator]

15. ElsewheresDaughter

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[bushisanidiot]

16. I knew the Capital evacuation was a distraction for something..

jets scrambled to shoot down a senator's plane...

but no jets scrambled when, for several hours, we were under attack on 9/11.

BRILLIANT!

[AlCzervik]

17. They had some video on at cnn, it was a pretty big crowd.

i'm sure newsweek will be blamed for this.

[keek]

18. Afghans riot over Koran report

I guess that we are bringing free speech to Afghanistan.


JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police opened fire on protesters on Wednesday killing four and wounding dozens after violent demonstrations over a report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran.

U.S. forces stationed in the conservative Muslim city of Jalalabad, 130 km (80 miles) east of the capital, were called back to base when the trouble began leaving Afghan authorities to handle it, at their request, a U.S. spokeswoman said.

Government offices were set on fire, shops looted and U.N. buildings and diplomatic missions attacked as thousands of people took to the streets chanting "Death to America".

About 1,000 school students demonstrated in nearby Laghman province. In Khost city, also in the east, protesters burned a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush and a U.S. flag.

There was also a report of a protest in the central province of Wardak. Kabul was quiet.

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

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

The protest began on Tuesday when about 2,000 students marched to demand an apology and punishment for those involved in the reported incident.

Many more people turned out on Wednesday with ordinary residents also taking part, said a witness who estimated more than 5,000 were involved.

The protesters also denounced Karzai, destroying a portrait of him and shouting "Death to America's allies" and "Death to Karzai" as well as "Death to Bush".

"We don't want America, we don't want Karzai, we want Islam," they shouted.

Cars were smashed, shops ransacked and government buildings, including the governor's office, torched. Protesters looted the Pakistani consulate and attacked an Indian mission, a witness said. Smoke billowed across the city, which sprawls along the main road to the Khyber Pass and Pakistan.

U.N. offices were attacked and two of its guest houses seriously damaged and all but essential staff were being moved out of the city, said spokeswoman Ariane Quentier.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050511/325/filc3.html

[Hobarticus]

19. A handful of overzealous dipshits defiles a religion...

...all in the name of The War on Terror, and in our name.

Fire them. One and all.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[XemaSab]

20. Winning hearts and minds...

.

[Javaman]

21. Interesting coincidence. So near the anniversary of Kent State...

Now the Afghans have their own protest tragedy to remember, also at the hands of the US military. Nothing like spreading freedom. Oh excuse me, "freedom is on the march!"

Yes, a jackbooted march.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. Anti-U.S. Riot Turns Deadly in Afghanistan

Who cares they ain't Christians

By MUSADEQ SADEQ, Associated Press Writer

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Shouting "Death to America!" more than 1,000 demonstrators rioted and threw stones at a U.S. military convoy Wednesday, as protests spread to four Afghan provinces over a report that interrogators desecrated Islam's holy book at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Police fired on the protesters, many of them students, trying to stifle the biggest display of anti-American anger since the ouster of the ruling Taliban militia 3 1/2 years ago. There were no reports of American casualties, but the violence left four dead and 71 injured in Jalalabad, a city 80 miles east of the capital, Kabul.

Mobs smashed car and shop windows and attacked government offices, the Pakistani consulate and the offices of two U.N. agencies in Jalalabad. Smoke billowed from the consulate and a U.N. building. More than 50 foreign aid workers were reportedly evacuated.

The protests may expand into neighboring Pakistan, where a coalition of hard-line Islamic parties said it would hold nationwide demonstrations Friday over the alleged desecration of the Quran.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050512/ap_on_re_as/afghan_us_protest

[Rex]

23. Why do they hate us for our freedoms?

Tin soldiers and Nixons coming, four dead in Ohio.

[Moderator]

24. kick to combine

[Miss Chybil]

25. Anti-US protests erupt in Kabul

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/12/content_2949044.htm

KABUL, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Several hundreds of students demonstrated Thursday morning on the street in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, protesting against the reported desecration of US interrogators to the Quran.

Shouting "Death to America," "Death to Bush," "Long life Islam," students paraded along the main streets of the city, where many government forces have been deployed to prevent possible riots.

The university students, angered by a report in Newsweek magazine that US interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba had desecrated the Quran to intimidate prisoners, started demonstrations in eastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday.

The anti-US protests spread in Afghan cities on Wednesday, in which four protesters were killed and more than 70 were injured in Jalalabad in riot during which the US troops and Afghan police opened fire.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/12/content_2949044.htm

(Picture Caption)
Smoke billows from the governor's building after it was set on fire by protesters in Jalalabad May 11. (Reuters) (End Picture Caption)

[otohara]

26. Killing and Injuring Protestors

Well, that ought to go over well with the parents of these kids.

[Rainscents]

27. Freedom is on the march!

:banghead:

[Theduckno2]

28. Sadly, it looks like we found a way to export Kent State.

I wonder how many of the protesters were armed? :sarcasm: I bet there are some in the Administration who are puzzled by these events; to them, after all it is just a book. I could only imagine their reaction if someone went around defacing and bashing manger scenes during the holiday season. They would protest at city hall to get every police officer out looking for the perpetrators.