Afghan police fire on anti-US protestors

Afghan police opened fire yesterday to disperse thousands of anti-American protesters rioting for a second day over an incident that the U.S. said was inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a military base in Kabul.

At least 17 people were wounded in the rallies in the Afghan capital and in another city, officials said. In Kabul, police shot into the air over a crowd gathered outside a housing complex for foreigners and a U.S. base on the city's outskirts. Nearby, angry demonstrators set a fuel truck ablaze on a main highway linking the Afghan capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad. "Death to America," chanted the angry protesters as they hurled rocks and set fires outside the complex, which is home to foreign contractors, police and some coalition military forces.

The U.S. had apologised Tuesday for the burning of books, including Qurans, that had been pulled from the shelves of a detention center library adjoining Bagram air base because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. The White House later echoed military officials and said the burning of Qurans and other Islamic reading material that had been tossed in a pile of garbage was an accident.

As the rally Wednesday in Kabul turned violent, the city's police chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi arrived at the scene with hundreds of reinforcements. Police later said the demonstrations had been broken up and that the situation in Kabul was now under control.

Several kilometers away, hundreds were also gathered outside Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military base, and were hurling rocks at the installation. Shots were also fired in the air at Camp Phoenix.

Another smaller and peaceful demonstration with just over 100 people took place in western Kabul near the capital's university.

Police in eastern Jalalabad city said that thousands demonstrated in a number of separate protests over the Quran burning incident, with about 1,000 gathering outside an American base at the city's airport. Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdul Zai said six protesters were wounded around the city of Jalalabad and that a number of buildings had been burned.

click to enlarge ENRAGED: An Afghan policeman keeps watch during a protest near a U.S. military base in Kabul February 22, 2012. © Reuters

click to enlarge Afghan men look at a burnt vehicle after a demonstration in Kabul February 22, 2012. © REUTERS