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Former U.S. Embassy in Kabul torched


KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) --The abandoned U.S. Embassy in Kabul was set on fire Wednesday during an anti-U.S. demonstration in the Afghan capital.

Believed to be the largest protest in Afghanistan since the U.S. threatened to attack the ruling Taliban government, thousands of demonstrators torched buildings and vehicles in the embassy compound.

News footage from Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera showed men with machine guns milling around the embassy and shouting. They were seen scurrying in and out of broken windows on the lower level of the building.

Protesters stoned the chancellery and used hammers to rip the U.S. seal from the building.

Shouting "Death to Bush. We support Islam and bin Laden", protesters also burned an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Taliban security forces later moved the protesters away from the complex, leaving gray smoke billowing from the embassy.

The demonstrators had been protesting a possible U.S. attack on the country, after the U.S. threatened strikes if the Taliban government did not hand over Osama bin Laden -- the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"Long live Osama. Down with America," the crowd chanted, the Associated Press reported.

"Anyone who supports America is a traitor."

The embassy has been empty since 1989, when U.S. diplomats and staff left in the final stages of Afghanistan's war against Soviet occupation forces.

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Op woensdag 26 september 2001 13:56 schreef links234 het volgende:

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Is een verlaten ambassade nog steeds grondgebied van dat land, of is dat alleen zo als er een ambassadeur zit en er diplomatieke betrekkingen met dat land zijn?

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