Anti-American riots

Jalalabad, Afghanistan

Newsweek this week retracted a report that sparked deadly rioting across Afghanistan and Pakistan. In a brief article published on May 1, the magazine cited an unnamed source as saying U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had flushed a Koran down the toilet to humiliate inmates. After the report was published, anti-American demonstrations quickly spread from a Jalalabad university to Kabul and other areas. At least 10 protesters were killed. Newsweek said that because its original source had backed away from the Koran claim, it was retracting the story. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the unrest shows that Afghanistan remains highly fragile. “The enemies of Afghanistan are still active,” he said. “They do not want Afghanistan to have a strategic relationship with the international community.”

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