THE TELEGRAPH: A man was shot dead by German troops when Afghan protesters demonstrating against plans by an American pastor to burn copies of the Koran attacked a Nato base in the north of Afghanistan.
A crowd, estimated at 10,000 by officials in the Badakhshan province, poured into the streets of Faizabad on Friday morning after special Eid prayers to mark the end of Muslim Ramadan.
The protests quickly turned violent and a man was shot when German troops inside the Nato base opened fire after they were attacked by a mob of stone throwing demonstrators.
"They numbered in their thousands, it is a big crowd," said Sayed Hassan Jafary, a police chief in Faizabad.
"People almost from all city mosques gathered."
Mr Jafary said that the crowd chanted "death to America" and threw rocks at the German-run military base in the city.
The protesters demanded the Afghan authorities give them an American flag "so they can burn it and end the demonstrations". "But we don't have an American flag," said Mr Jafary.
A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said that officials were investigating the shooting in Faizabad, the capital of the Badakhshan province.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, had earlier added his voice to those of other leaders from other Islamic countries who have said that the Koran burning would be an attack on all Muslims.
"The Koran is in the hearts and minds of all Muslims. The affront against the holy book is a humiliation to the people. We are hopeful that he gives up this affront and should not even think about it."
Brigadier General Hans-Werner Fritz, the commander of German troops in Afghanistan, had warned on Thursday that the book burning "would provide a trigger for violence towards all ISAF troops, including the Germans in northern Afghanistan."
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, phoned Terry Jones, the Florida pastor on Thursday night and asked him to reconsider his plans to burn Korans on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, because it would have endanger the lives of American and Nato troops.
But the evangelist has refused to cancel the book burning unless plans to build a mosque near the site of the New York World Trade Centre that was destroyed in the September 11 terror attacks nine years ago are cancelled. >>> | Friday, September 10, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: 9/11 Koran burning: Pastor Terry Jones gives imam two-hour deadline: Terry Jones, a Florida pastor who has caused global outrage over a threat to burn the Koran, has given a New York imam a two-hour deadline to agree to hold talks on moving a planned mosque close to ground zero. >>> | Friday, September 10, 2010
