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| Afghanistan |
| Occupiers kill several Afghans at demo, locals say |
| 2010-01-13 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Locals say troops of the US-led alliance have killed at least eight Afghan civilians at a demonstration organized to protest against the alliance forces' desecration of the Holy Quran. The mortalities were caused by fire from the alliance forces during the demonstration, which about 2,000 people attended, in the southern province of Helmand, locals said on Tuesday, the German news agency DPA reported. Residents said the troops had stormed a house and destroyed copies of the Muslim holy book in a local mosque in the province's Garmsir district on Sunday. "We have proof that they destroyed our Holy Quran. We can show it to [President Hamid] Karzai's government or the foreign forces," said resident Habibullah Jan. "The people came out of their homes today [Tuesday] to protest this action of foreign forces in a peaceful way, but the Afghan and international forces opened fire on us and killed eight people," Haji Abdul Manan, one of the organizers of the demonstration, was quoted as saying by DPA. And over 20 people were injured, he added. "In this demonstration, 13 people died and 25 were wounded. The situation is very bad and the protest is still going on. People are very angry with foreigners because they have desecrated our Holy Quran. Also, they fired on demonstrators. I repeat that many people died and were wounded during the protest," Reuters quoted Haji Jan Gul, who brought some of the wounded to the hospital, as saying. However, US spokesman for the military alliance Lt. Nico Melendez claimed that no shots had been fired and added that the alliance's troops had not committed any sacrilegious acts, Associated Press reported. "We take such allegations very seriously and would support a combined investigation with local Afghan authorities," he stated. In response to a similar act of desecration in Wardak province in October, angry rallies were held. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 We have proof that they destroyed our Holy Quran. We can show it to [President Hamid] Karzai's government or the foreign forces," said resident Habibullah Jan...Al Qaeda told us. |
| Posted by: Mike Hunt 2010-01-13 11:33 |