Riot erupts after desecration of the Quran

LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The eastern city of Jalalabad erupted Wednesday in the worst anti-American riot since U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan. Four Afghans died as mobs stoned U.S. troops and smashed foreign consulates, aid agency offices, government buildings and local shops.
The riot sprang from protests at news that U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Quran while guarding Muslim prisoners, including many Afghans, held as suspected "enemy combatants." The desecration, including an alleged instance of a Quran thrown into a toilet, was reported by Newsweek magazine, and similar cases have been cited by prisoners recently freed from Guantanamo and other U.S. prisons.
A protest by students at Jalalabad University on Wednesday morning spilled into the city's dusty streets, where crowds of young men chanted "Death to America," witnesses said.
A U.S. convoy passed nearby and drew a hail of stones from the mob before withdrawing, a U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul said.