Qur’an-Shooting Rage turns lethal. “1 NATO soldier killed in Quran protest,” by Alisa Tang for the Associated Press, May 22:
KABUL, Afghanistan – Gunfire broke out Thursday at a protest in western Afghanistan against a U.S. sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice and officials said a NATO soldier and two civilians were killed.
Police opened fire on demonstrators who threw rocks and set tents on fire near a military airfield in western Ghor province, said NATO spokesman Maj. Martin O’Donnell.
Two civilians were slain and seven others were wounded, he said.
Gunfire also killed one NATO soldier and wounded another, but it was not clear who shot at them, O’Donnell said.
“We don’t know if it was one of the protesters, an insurgent among the protesters or an insurgent sniper outside the protest. We have no indication that it was the Afghan National
Police,” O’Donnell told The Associated Press.
That such a denial is even needed says a lot about the state of affairs there.
Ghor provincial police chief Shah Jahan Noori said about 1,000 demonstrators had gathered to protest the Quran shooting.
“Among these people were rebels who opened fire,” Noori said, adding that 10 policemen were also wounded.
Provincial council member Ahmad Khan Rahimi was among the protesters and estimated the crowd at 2,000 people.
He said they chanted “Death to America!” and “America is against Islam!”