A Taliban suicide car bomber targeting a NATO base at Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan killed nine people yesterday, following days of deadly anti-US protests over the burning of the Koran.
Six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed, police said, but there were no reports of NATO casualties, according to a spokesman for the US-led International Security Assistance Force.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Korans at a US military base, taking the toll in six days of violent protests across the country to about 40 people.
“The foreign forces have insulted our religion and this attack was revenge,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
On Sunday, seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack during an anti-US demonstration at their base in northern Kunduz Province, police said.
On Saturday, two US advisers were shot dead in the Afghan Ministry of the Interior in Kabul just days after two US troops died when an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them as thousands of demonstrators approached their base in the east.
The US embassy has been in lockdown since the violence erupted and has warned of a “heightened potential threat to American citizens in Afghanistan.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Sunday that the deadly protests in Afghanistan over the burning of Korans by US soldiers “must stop.”
“We deeply regret the incident that has led to this protest, but we also believe that violence must stop and the hard work for building a more peaceful and secure Afghanistan must continue,” she told a news conference.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai went on television on the same day to appeal for calm.
He condemned “with the strongest words” the treatment of Islam’s holy book and said the perpetrators should be punished, but told his countrymen: “Now that we have shown our feelings it is time to be calm and peaceful.”
Karzai said he respected the emotions of Afghans upset by the Koran burning in an incinerator pit at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul, but urged them not to let “the enemies of Afghanistan misuse their feelings.”
Taliban insurgents have called on Afghans to kill foreign troops in revenge for the incident and claimed to have been behind the killing of the two US advisers in the interior ministry.
The shooting prompted NATO and several European countries to pull their advisers out of Afghan government ministries, while fallout from the Koran burnings widened as Afghan ministers cancelled a visit to Washington.
The Pentagon said on Sunday that Afghanistan’s defense and interior ministers had canceled a visit to Washington this week to concentrate on addressing security concerns at home.
An Afghan government official said the US advisers killed in the interior ministry had been mocking anti-US protests over the burning of the Koran in the presence of an Afghan colleague before being shot.
Government sources said police were hunting for an Afghan intelligence official suspected of killing the two advisers.
US President Barack Obama has apologized for the burning of the Korans, which officials said were inadvertently sent to the incinerator.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopeful and former US senator Rick Santorum criticized Obama’s apology for the burning of Korans in Afghanistan, adding that Afghanistan should apologize to the US for the deaths of four US soldiers during six days of violence sparked by the incident.
“There was nothing deliberately done wrong here,” Santorum said on Sunday on ABC television’s This Week. “This was something that happened as a mistake. Killing Americans in uniform is not a mistake. It was something deliberate.”
“The response needs to be apologized for by Karzai and the Afghan people for attacking and killing our men and women in uniform and overreacting to this inadvertent mistake,” he said.
Santorum said on NBC’s Meet the Press “That is the real crime here, not what our soldiers did.”
The president’s apology suggests there is blame and that the US did something wrong “in the sense of doing a deliberate act,” Santorum said.
Santorum said that rather than saying he was sorry, Obama should have acknowledged that burning copies of Islam’s holiest book in a trash pit was wrong and taken responsibility for the incident, “but to apologize, I think, lends credibility that somehow or another that it was more than that.”
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
PINEAPPLE DEBATE: While the owners of the pizzeria dislike pineapple on pizza, a survey last year showed that over 50% of Britons either love or like the topping A trendy pizzeria in the English city of Norwich has declared war on pineapples, charging an eye-watering ￡100 (US$124) for a Hawaiian in a bid to put customers off the disputed topping. Lupa Pizza recently added pizza topped with ham and pineapple to its account on a food delivery app, writing in the description: “Yeah, for ￡100 you can have it. Order the champagne too! Go on, you monster!” “[We] vehemently dislike pineapple on pizza,” Lupa co-owner Francis Wolf said. “We feel like it doesn’t suit pizza at all,” he said. The other co-owner, head chef Quin Jianoran, said they kept tinned pineapple
RSS