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May 13, 2005, 8:42PM

Muslims' anti-U.S. protests spread

Thousands react to reports saying interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated Quran

By CARLOTTA GALL
New York Times

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Thousands of Muslims, from Gaza to Pakistan to Indonesia, emerged from prayer services on Friday to join Afghans in rapidly spreading protests over the reported desecration of a Quran by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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In Afghanistan, at least eight people were killed and more than 40 injured in clashes, bringing the death toll over four days of anti-American rioting to at least 16, with more than 100 injured. For the first time a policeman was killed in the violence.

Three protesters were killed and 23 people wounded as the police grappled with a crowd of more than 1,500 in Baharak, in far northeastern Badakhstan, the police chief of the province, Gen. Shah Jehan Nuri, said in a telephone interview. Ten police officers and members of the border police, based in the town, were among the injured, he said.

In three Pakistan cities, Multan, Peshawar and Quetta, hundreds of protesters led largely by religious parties burned American flags and chanted anti-American slogans after Friday prayers. The protests were peaceful, though, thanks in part to the large numbers of police officers deployed outside mosques and official buildings.

Hundreds of people gathered peacefully outside a mosque in Jakarta on Friday while a statement was read condemning the United States for the reported abuses. In Gaza, about 1,500 members of the radical Islamic group Hamas marched through the Jabaliya refugee camp as outrage spread over the reports, including a brief item in Newsweek, that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Quran down the toilet in an effort to upset detainees.

Protesters carrying the green banners of Islam and Hamas shouted, "Protect our holy book!" Some burned American and Israeli flags.

Anti-American protests are rare among militant Palestinians, who decry American support for Israel but emphasize that their struggle is with Israel, not the United States.

The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Friday that officials at the Defense Dpartment were investigating reports of the desecrations and "they take such allegations very seriously," Reuters reported. "We will not tolerate any disrespect for the holy Quran," McClellan added.

In Afghanistan, where the protests began Wednesday, the violence seemed to be spreading, with demonstrations in several provincial towns. Police officers and Afghan National Army troops were prepared in many places but still had trouble quelling the violence, which was directed at the government and international organizations.

The protest in Baharak formed as men emerged from the mosque after Friday prayers and moved on the offices of three international aid organizations. They looted and burned the office of Focus Humanitarian Assistance, which is financed by the Agha Khan, and broke into offices of a British organization, Afghanaid. Some in the crowd were armed and masked, Nuri said.

Violent clashes were also reported in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, where hundreds of protesters tried to storm the governor's office.

Officials told the Associated Press that two protesters and a policeman were killed. According to the government news agency, Bakhtar, 20 people were injured as police officers and Afghan National Army troops opened fire to quell the riot.

Residents said three civilians were killed as well, but that could not be confirmed. Local officials refused to comment on the situation.

The Bakhtar agency said that several people were arrested and that the violence had been organized by extremist groups. Some of the armed people were from outside the province, it said.



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