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February 07, 2006
Tuesday: Violence Continues Over Cartoon
KABUL, Afghanistan Norwegian troops opened fire on protesters who attacked a NATO base Tuesday in the second straight day of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Afghan officials said.
Cont....
In neighboring Pakistan, 5,000 people chanting "Hang the man who insulted the prophet" burned effigies of one cartoonist and Denmark's prime minister. And a prominent Iranian newspaper said it was going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust in reaction to European newspapers publishing the prophet drawings.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the West's publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian elections last month. "The West condemns any denial of the Jewish holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities," Khamenei said.
The Norwegian troops fired on hundreds of protesters outside the base in Maymana after the demonstrators shot at them and threw grenades, said provincial Gov. Mohammed Latif. One of the demonstrators was killed and two were wounded, he said.
NATO peacekeepers rushed British reinforcements to the city.
A spokeswoman for the peacekeeping force, Squadron Leader Annie Gibson-Sexton, said troops used tear gas against the protesters, but could not confirm that shots had been fired. She said there were no reports of injuries among the Norwegian troops.
The cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in September, then reprinted by a Norwegian newspaper last month, setting off violent protests against the two countries across the Muslim world. The cartoons have subsequently been reprinted in other media, mostly in Europe.
The drawings — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — have touched a raw nerve in part because Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.
In the Afghan capital of Kabul, police used batons to beat stone-throwing protesters outside the Danish diplomatic mission office and near the offices of the World Bank on Tuesday. An Associated Press reporter saw police arrest several people, many of whom were injured.
Security had already been tightened in Kabul, home to some 3,000 foreign diplomats, aid workers and others. Police have set up barricades and peacekeepers have been on constant patrol.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_038071534.html
Posted by Post Scripts at February 7, 2006 08:50 AM