Time for more concessions, Obama. “Violent anti-US protest erupts in Kabul,” from AFP, September 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Hundreds of Afghans staged a violent protest in Kabul on Monday against an American film mocking the Prophet Mohammed, throwing stones at a US base, torching cars and shouting “Death to America”, police said.
The demonstration erupted on Jalalabad Road, home to NATO and US military bases in the eastern part of the Afghan capital, with two police cars among those set ablaze, Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.
A low-budget trailer for a movie entitled “Innocence of Muslims,” believed to have been produced by a small group of extremist Christians in the United States, has sparked furious anti-American protests across the Islamic world.
Gunmen from the crowd — which Salangi said numbered around 1,000 — opened fire at police, but Salangi said he had told officers not to return fire to avoid escalating the violence.
Between 40 to 50 policemen were “very slightly wounded” by stone throwers and members of the crowd waving sticks, said Salangi, who added that he had also been grazed by a stone.
An AFP photographer said burning tyres sent thick black smoke streaming into the sky and large stones littered the road as shopkeepers hurriedly locked up and ran away.
There was a heavy police presence and firefighters were quickly scrambled to try to extinguish the flames engulfing cars and storage containers owned by private businesses.
A local district police official, who gave his name only as Hafiz, said protesters threw stones at Camp Phoenix, a US-run military base in the area….
A total of 17 people have died in violence linked to the film, including four Americans killed in Benghazi, 11 protesters who died as police battled to defend US missions from mobs in Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen, and the two US soldiers in Afghanistan.