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Four killed in cartoon protests

Dozen injured as several Asian countries witness violence

KABUL: Muslim demonstrators clashed with security forces who fired live rounds and tear gas to break up violent protests in several Asian countries on Monday against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed. Four persons were killed, and at least a dozen were injured.

Firing on protesters

Police fired on some 2,000 protesters who were trying to break into Bagram, the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, killing two demonstrators and injuring five others, said Kabir Ahmed, local government chief. Eight police were also hurt, but no U.S. forces were involved in the incident at the base near Kabul.

Another two demonstrators were shot to death and three other persons, including two police officials, were injured in the central Afghan city of Mihtarlam when police fired on hundreds of demonstrators, said Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa. The police opened fire after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives, he said. The protesters burned tyres and threw stones at the offices of the police and provincial Governor, he said.

In Kabul, police using batons and rifle butts broke up a protest by about 200 youths in front of the presidential palace. An Associated Press reporter saw at least three protesters bleeding from injuries, and at least seven more who were arrested and driven away in a police vehicle.

``Long live Islam! We are Muslims! We don't let anyone insult our Prophet!'' shouted the demonstrators.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, police fired warning shots to stop protesters from ripping a plaque from the wall of the U.S. consulate in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, witnesses said.

Hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks at the Danish consulate in the city before moving on to the U.S. consulate.

About 400 members of Thailand's Muslim minority shouted ``God is Great'' outside Denmark's embassy in Bangkok, and some demonstrators stomped on a Danish flag.

In Malaysia, an editor of a newspaper that ran one of the drawings to accompany an article about the lack of impact of the controversy inside the country resigned, according to a statement seen on Monday.

AP

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