KABUL, 13 May 2005 — At least three more anti-US protesters were killed yesterday in clashes with police, officials said, as rage at reported abuse of the Qur’an at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay spread across the country.
In the capital, Kabul, students burned an American flag, while mobs attacked a government outpost and the offices of two international relief organizations just to the south, injuring one aid worker and leaving a trail of destruction, officials said.
The unrest came a day after riots in the eastern city of Jalalabad left four people dead — the worst anti-American protests in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.
While most of the protesters appeared to be students, officials have suggested that elements opposed to the country’s US-backed government were stirring the violence, which has also targeted the United Nations and American troops.
“It’s the symbols of this change in Afghanistan that have been singled out,” said Paul Barker, director of CARE International. “There are probably people around the country inciting this.”
In yesterday’s bloodiest incident, police fired on hundreds of anti-US demonstrators in the town of Khogyani to prevent them from marching on Jalalabad, about 30 km to the north, local police chief Maj. Gul Wali said.
Wali said three of the protesters died and one was injured. He claimed many at the gathering were armed.
However, Interior Ministry spokesman Latufallah Mashal said only two people died in Khogyani. Mashal said a third protester died in a separate clash with police in Wardak province, south of Kabul.
In Mohammed Agha district of neighboring Logar province, Barker said a group of high school students assailed the CARE office early in the morning, beating one staff member and destroying equipment. The office of another foreign relief group next door was set on fire, he said.
Logar Gov. Amanullah Hamimi said protesters also broke the windows of the district mayor’s office and that unidentified men had destroyed a nearby mobile phone mast during the night with rockets.
In Kabul, more than 200 young men marched from a dormitory block near Kabul University chanting “Death to America!” and carrying banners including one stating: “Those who insult the Qur’an should be brought to justice.”
