Violence escalates after Quran burnings
Afghan anger, attacks rage on despite apologies
KABUL — A suicide car bomber struck early today at the gates of Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine people in a large blast, officials said.
The Taliban said the attack on the airport, which serves both civilian and international military aircraft, was revenge for the burning of Muslim holy books at an American military base.
The attack comes after demonstrators on Sunday hurled grenades at a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan, and a gunbattle left two Afghans dead and seven NATO troops injured in the escalating crisis over the burning of the Qurans.
More than 30 people have been killed, including four U.S. servicemembers, in nearly a week of unrest. Still, the top U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan said the violence would not change Washington’s course.
“Tensions are running very high here, and I think we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business,” Ambassador Ryan Crocker told CNN’S
State of the Union. “This is not the time to decide that we’re done here,” he said. “We have got to redouble our efforts. We’ve got to create a situation in which al-qaeda is not coming back.”
Sunday’s attack on the base came a day after two U.S. military advisers — a lieutenant colonel and a major — were found dead after being shot in the head at the Interior Ministry in Kabul.
The incident prompted NATO, Britain and France to recall hundreds of international advisers from all Afghan ministries in the capital.
A manhunt was underway for the main suspect in that shooting — an Afghan man who worked as a driver for an office on the same floor as the advisers who were killed, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
The Taliban claimed that the shooter was one of their sympathizers and that an accomplice had helped him get into the compound to kill the Americans in retaliation for the Quran burnings.
In today’s car bombing, the attacker drove up to the gates of the airport shortly after dawn and detonated his explosives in a “very strong” blast, said Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Hazrad Mohammad. NATO forces spokesman Capt. Justin Brockhoff said no international forces were killed, and the installation was not breached.
Afghanistan’s defense and interior ministers were to visit Washington this week, but they called off the trip to consult with other Afghan officials and religious leaders on how to stop the violence, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
President Obama and other officials apologized for the burnings, which they called an accident.
Last week, during a protest in Nangarhar province, two other U.S. servicemembers were killed when an Afghan soldier turned his gun on them.
In Sunday’s protest in Kunduz, thousands of protesters tried to enter the district’s largest city. Armed individuals fired on police and threw grenades at the U.S. base, said Amanuddin Quriashi, administrator in Imam Sahib.
Seven NATO servicemembers were wounded by the grenade. One protester was killed by troops firing from the U.S. base, and another was killed by Afghan police, Quriashi said.