CNN
Kabul, Afghanistan -- A protest over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base turned violent Sunday, leaving a protester dead and several U.S. service members and police wounded, officials said.
The violence in northern Kunduz province came a day after a gunman killed two U.S. military officers inside the highly secured Afghanistan Ministry of Interior. Protesters threw a hand grenade at the base, injuring seven U.S. military personnel believed to be Special Forces members, Hussaini said. The attack took place at Combat Outpost Fortitude, ISAF said.
Sixteen police were also injured in an attack the police chief's office, said Hussaini. Protesters used grenades, pistols, knives, sticks, and stones, he said. One protester was killed and three were injured in the demonstration in Kunduz, Hussaini said.
The incidents came after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called for calm Sunday. While the "emotions of our people" over the burned Qurans "are legitimate and valuable," Karzai said in a televised address, remaining calm would help stop "enemies of our peace and stability" from taking advantage of the situation and harming people and property.
At least 29 people have been killed and nearly 200 wounded in recent protests, Karzai said. Two U.S. soldiers were gunned down last week at a base in eastern Afghanistan by a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform.
The man who shot two military officers Saturday at the interior ministry was a junior intelligence officer with ties to a Pakistani religious school, an Afghan counter-terrorism official said.
"We believe it was 100% linked to the Quran burning because of the religious background of this junior officer. He spent two months in a Pakistani madrassa," the official said.
The interior ministry confirmed that the gunman in Saturday's shooting is believed to be one of its employees, whose "whereabouts are unknown." Police "are making every effort to find him as soon as possible," the ministry said.
Karzai extended his condolences to the families of the American officers killed, but said he did not know who was responsible or what was the motivation. Karzai also repeated calls for the United States to prosecute those responsible for burning the Qurans.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN, "We are hoping that voices inside Afghanistan will join that of President Karzai and others in speaking out to try to calm the situation." "It is out of hand and it needs to stop," she said.
The protests began last week after reports emerged that NATO troops burned Qurans at Bagram Airfield. A military official said the materials burned were removed from a detainee center's library because they had "extremist inscriptions" on them and there was "an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications."
American officials, including President Barack Obama, have apologized and said the burning of the Qurans was an unintentional error. Muslims believe the Quran is the word of God, so holy that people should wash their hands before touching the sacred book.
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I thought it didn't make too much sense for Obama to write a letter of apology to islamic leaders. I feel that in this type of situation it goes both ways. We burned their quarans but then again, they have probably burned bibles as well.
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DeleteAnthony E P.7
I agree with who ever that is ^,but even if they DO burn our bibles,what right does it give us to burn theirs.I mean I know it seems fair,but its also childish,immoral! But in the end I do think Obama did the right thing by apologizing,even if they don't accept it.
ReplyDeleteChris W P.1
The reaction that people took don't surprice me at all because specially in those countries they are known for they religions, its the most important thing for them, their government and their life is based on it, I don't say that killing american soldiers was a good thing, but burning their Qurans wasn't a good thin either, this really makes me wonder if we are really doing what we're supposed to in that country, "helping them". And the action that took Obama was the least we could do as a country for those actions.
ReplyDeleteLucy M7
I think that violence doesn't solve anything and murder also doesn't solve anything either. Everyone in the world has a right to pick whatever kind of religion they wanted to be and no one else can't choose it for you. The way I see it is that everyone has a choice to do the right thing or do things out of hate.
ReplyDeleteJimmy P.7
if the people weren't using the books to promote their extremist views the books would not have been burned. the soldiers didn't know the importance of the books. The soldiers were not warned.
ReplyDeleteTim M.
The United States Soldiers did not burn the Qurans with the intent of offending or going against the Muslim religion. These soldiers simply were trying to eradicate the extremist messages that were written on them; therefore, I feel that these Muslim countries should not be so upset with us. We have apologized and explained our actions, but that doesn't seem to have been enough. I think this act will unfortunately increase hostility from those countries towards the US, because they do not understand our reasoning for burning the books.
ReplyDeleteAnna C3
I agree with Anna. The United States was only trying to prevent extremist messages from being passed to other potentially dangerous groups of people. I don't think it's necessary to hold these protests which result in people getting injured and killed. In my opinion, it doesn't make any sense to me to have this result in any type of violence.
ReplyDeleteBarrett B.3
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