Afghans rally against US forces

Kabul: More than 2,000 angry Afghans protested outside an American airbase yesterday after they learned that copies of the Quran were burned in a pile of garbage at a sprawling US military base north of Kabul.

"Die, die, foreigners!" the demonstrators shouted. Some fired rifles into the air. Others threw rocks at the gate of the base and set tires ablaze.

The burning of the Quran and other religious books was unintentional, US General John Allen, the top commander of American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said.

Anti-foreign sentiment

The incident stoked anti-foreign sentiment that is already on the rise after a decade of war in Afghanistan and fuelled the arguments of Afghans who claim foreign troops are not respectful of their culture or Islamic religion.

Early yesterday, as word of the incident spread, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the sprawling Bagram Air Field in Parwan province. As the crowd grew, so did the outrage.

One protester, Mohammad Hakeem, said that if US forces can't bring peace to Afghanistan, they should go home. "They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith," Hakeem said. "They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Quran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body."

Ahmad Zaki Zahed, chief of the provincial council, said US military officials took him to a pit on the base where 60 to 70 books, including Qurans, were recovered. The books were used by detainees once incarcerated at the base, he said.

"Some were all burned. Some were half-burned," Zahed said, adding that he did not know exactly how many Qurans had been burned.

Zahed said five Afghans working at the pit told him that the religious books were in the garbage that two soldiers with the US-led coalition transported to the pit in a truck late Monday night. When they realised the books were in the trash, the labourers quickly worked to recover them, he said.

"The labourers there showed me how their fingers were burned when they took the books out of the fire," he said.

In a statement, Allen said he had ordered an investigation and offered his apologies to the president and people of Afghanistan. He thanked local Afghan workers "who helped us identify the error, and who worked with us to immediately take corrective action".

"We are thoroughly investigating the incident and are taking steps to ensure this does not ever happen again," Allen said. "I assure you, I promise you, this was not intentional in any way."

Calming protesters

Afghan Army General Abdul Jalil Rahimi, the commander of a military coordination office in the province, said he and other officials met with protesters, tribal elders and clerics to try to calm their emotional response. "The protesters were very angry and didn't want to end their protest," he said.

Later, however, the protesters ended the rally and said they would send 20 representatives from the group to Kabul to talk with Afghan parliamentarians and demanded a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, Rahimi said.