KABUL, Afghanistan - The city of Jalalabad erupted Wednesday in the worst anti-American riot since U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan. Four Afghans died as mobs stoned U.S. troops and smashed foreign consulates, aid agency offices, government buildings and local shops.
The riot sprang from protests at news that U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Quran while guarding Muslim prisoners, including many Afghans, who are held as suspected "enemy combatants." The desecration, including an alleged instance of a Quran thrown into a toilet, was reported by Newsweek magazine, and similar cases have been cited by prisoners recently freed from Guantanamo and other U.S. prisons.
A protest by students at Jalalabad University on Wednesday morning spilled into the city's dusty streets, where crowds of young men chanted "Death to America," witnesses said. A U.S. convoy passed nearby and drew a hail of stones from the mob before withdrawing, a U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul said.
Mobs broke down the gates of several United Nations agencies and nongovernment aid organizations to smash windows and sack offices. They also hit Pakistan's consulate and the consul's residence, offices of the provincial governor, and shops and hotels in the city center.
Afghan police and troops, who have been hastily trained, seemed uncertain what to do, witnesses said. At times they stood by, but eventually they fired on the crowd, witnesses told journalists, killing four people and injuring dozens more.
By afternoon, pillars of smoke rose from burning buildings and the charred hulks of vehicles smoldered in the streets. But as police and Afghan troops deployed in force, the streets were reported to be empty Wednesday night.
There were signs that the start of the riot had been organized. Protests began Tuesday at the city's university, a stronghold of anti-U.S. militant Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A resident reported seeing groups of men armed with clubs circulating around Wednesday's protest in its early hours, and simultaneous protests were held in at least three other Afghan towns and cities Wednesday.
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.
Last weekend, Pakistan's government said it was "deeply dismayed" by the report and registered its disapproval to Washington. Many Afghans read Pakistani papers and listen to Pakistani broadcasts; access to satellite TV has also mushroomed.
In any case, the violence in Jalalabad was a warning that the U.S.-led effort to stabilize Afghanistan is facing a largely hidden well of public anger, Afghan and Western analysts said.
"This is not simply about Qurans," said Alain de Bures, the Jalalabad-based director of Madera, a European aid agency working to rebuild agriculture in eastern Afghanistan. "This was an explosion of anger by people who are, frankly, fed up with the behavior of American troops."
The frustrations in Jalalabad described by de Bures and others include nighttime raids on homes by U.S. forces chasing suspected Taliban militants and the unrelieved poverty of much of the population.
Protesters in Jalalabad shouted accusations Wednesday that the United States fails to respect Islam.
U.S. officials rushed to declare otherwise. "This is a serious allegation, and it's going to be looked into," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "We have a great consideration with respect to the detainees we're holding and their religious practices."
Although Westerners usually compare the Quran, the Islamic scripture, to the Bible, in many ways it is more analogous in Christian belief to the person of Jesus -- as the revelation of God's instructions to humanity.
Muslim tradition requires extreme respect for the Quran, and pious believers will not touch it without first cleansing themselves with ritual ablutions.
This Report Includes Material From the Associated Press.