Quran burning: Thousands besiege US base
The Afghan police on Thursday fired shots in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break into an American military base in the country’s east to vent their anger over this week’s Quran burnings incident.
The fresh violence came one day after clashes between Afghan troops and protesters broke out in the capital and in three eastern provinces over the incident, leaving at least nine people dead and dozens wounded.
The Quran burnings have roiled Afghans and set off riots in an illustration of the intensity of the anger at what they perceive as foreign forces flouting their laws and insulting their culture. The US has apologised for the burnings, which took place at a military base near Kabul, and said it was a mistake. In the eastern Laghman province, protesters hurled rocks on Thursday and tried to remove the razor wire from the perimeter of the American base in Mehterlam, the provincial capital.
The demonstrators failed to push through and get inside the walls of the facility, which also houses a US-run provincial reconstruction team — a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve local governance, services and infrastructure. The Laghman reconstruction team is made up of US Army and Air Force service members, and staff from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development.
