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4 killed, scores wounded as police fire on anti-U.S. protesters in Afghanistan
 
Stephen Graham
Canadian Press

Afghan university students march in the streets in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, carrying copies of the Qur'an and sticks and tree branches Wednesday. (AP Photo)

KABUL (AP) - Police opened fire in an eastern Afghan city to control hundreds of students rioting over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book by U.S. forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Four people were killed and 71 wounded, officials said.

Shouting "Death to America," demonstrators smashed car and shop windows Wednesday and stoned a passing convoy of American soldiers in the city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border, in the biggest outpouring of anti-American sentiment since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The U.S. troops fired into the air before quickly leaving the area, provincial intelligence chief Sardar Shah told The Associated Press.

Four people were killed and 71 injured, including seven police officers, according to the Interior Ministry. It didn't identify the victims any further or say how they were hurt.

However, an official said earlier that most of the casualties had suffered gunshot wounds.

Mobs also attacked the Pakistani Consulate and the offices of two UN agencies and a Swedish relief organization. No foreigners were reported hurt.

"There is a lot of damage to the city, they have burned a lot of things," Shah told The Associated Press. "These are the enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan who don't want people to be able to get on with their lives in peace."

At one point, students threw stones at a group of American military vehicles, officials said. U.S. troops fired into the air before quickly leaving the area, Shah said.

U.S. spokeswoman Lieut. Cindy Moore said American forces in the area were ordered back to their camps but had no information on whether any of them were caught up in the unrest.

An Associated Press Television News cameraman said the crowds grew larger and wilder after the firing, and that the streets were deserted of traffic. Mobs pelted a government office and the local television station with rocks and tore down posters of President Hamid Karzai.

The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, one of the largest aid organizations in the country, said staff at its Jalalabad office took refuge on the roof as a mob stole, smashed or burned its equipment and torched two of its cars.

Murat Khan, Pakistan's deputy counsellor, said the consulate building as well as his boss' residence were in flames.

People broke into two United Nations compounds and burned two cars, a UN spokeswoman said.

Police and government troops had restored order by early afternoon, witnesses said.

Deputy provincial health chief Mohammed Ayub Shinwari said earlier that most the injured with students.

University and high school students held similar but peaceful protests in cities in neighbouring Laghman province and Khost, further to the south.

The demonstrations began Tuesday, when protesters burned an effigy of President George W. Bush over a report in Newsweek magazine that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay placed Qur'ans on toilets in order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet."

In Washington, the U.S. State Department said the allegations of desecration were "certainly serious and it would be important to have them be looked into."

"Obviously, the destruction of any kind of holy book, whether it's a Bible or a Qur'an or any other document like that, is something that's reprehensible and not in keeping with U.S. policies and practices," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Witnesses said students also demanded the release of all prisoners from Guantanamo, and that "American troops don't stay in Afghanistan forever" - tricky issues likely to be discussed when Karzai meets Bush in Washington later this month.

The government of neighbouring Pakistan - like Afghanistan, a conservative Muslim country and close ally in Washington's war on terrorism - has said it is "deeply dismayed" over the magazine report, and called for an inquiry.

A coalition of hardline Islamic parties in Pakistan said it will hold countrywide protests on Friday, the traditional day of prayer for Muslims.

The United States is holding about 520 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, many of them al-Qaida and Taliban suspects captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

© The Canadian Press 2005




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