Kabul, September 16: The Taleban claimed responsibility yesterday for an attack on a sprawling British base in southern Afghanistan that killed two US Marines and wounded several other troops, saying it was to avenge an anti-Islam film and also because Britain's Prince Harry is serving there.
The US-led NATO coalition said in a statement that nearly 20 insurgents armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades and explosive vests infiltrated the perimeter of Camp Bastion. The huge British base is adjacent to Camp Leatherneck, which houses US Marine operations in southern Helmand province.
The coalition said the attack, which began shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, killed two NATO service members, wounded several others and damaged multiple aircraft and structures.
Coalition forces returned fire and killed 18 militants. One other insurgent, who was wounded, has been detained and is being given medical treatment, the coalition said. NATO service members, who cleared the base of attackers early Saturday, were still assessing the damage to aircraft and buildings on the air field.
There were few protests against the film in Afghanistan on Friday and yesterday. A few hundred of university students protested in the eastern city of Khost, shouting “Death to America” and burning an effigy of President Barack Obama.
In a separate attack, two international soldiers were shot dead by a member of the local police in southern Afghanistan yesterday, NATO said.
Hundreds of men, women and children from an Islamic group protested yesterday in Indonesia against the United States over the film.
About 500 protesters from the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization gathered in Surabaya and Malang, two cities in East Java province.
In Malang, about 120 km south, more than one hundred protesters from the group gathered in the city center, carrying banners reading “When Islam is insulted, Jihad must be the solution” and “Crush America.”
Riot police clashed with about 200 protesters at the US Consulate in Sydney yesterday as demonstrations spread to Australia.
Ten Network television news showed a policeman knocked unconscious as the mostly male crowd hurled bottles and other missiles. Many of the protesters were wearing Muslim dress.
Police used pepper spray against the protesters, who chanted “Obama, Obama, we love Osama” and waved placards saying “Behead all those who insult the Prophet.” A total of six police officers were injured, including two who were taken to a hospital. Two protesters were treated for police dog bites and 17 others for the effects of pepper spray, police said in a statement. There were no details of their condition.
Eight people were arrested on charges including assaulting police and resisting arrest. Police were unsure who organized the protest.
Prime Minister Julian Gillard said the protest was unacceptable.
Egyptian police yesterday cleared out protesters who have been clashing with security forces for the past four days near the US Embassy.
Security forces erected a concrete wall blocking the main street leading to the embassy in Cairo after finally dispersing several hundred youths who had been battling with police, trying to get to the building. They also cleared nearby Tahrir Square where protests were being held.
Meanwhile, A California man convicted of bank fraud was taken in for questioning yesterday by officers investigating possible probation violations stemming from the making of the anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests in the Muslim world.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, voluntarily left his home in the early hours yesterday morning for the meeting in a sheriff's station in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
“He will be interviewed by federal probation officers,” Whitmore said. He said Nakoula had not been placed under arrest but would not be returning home immediately. “He was never put in handcuffs... It was all voluntary.” Nakoula, who has denied involvement in the film in a phone call to his Coptic Christian bishop, was ushered out of his home and into a waiting car by several sheriff's deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses.
The US is positioning military forces so that it can respond to unrest in as many as 17 or 18 places in the Islamic world, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced.
“We have to be prepared in the event that these demonstrations get out of control,” Panetta told Foreign Policy magazine. He did not offer any specifics. But the magazine said that the Pentagon was discussing, but had not yet decided, whether to send a third platoon of 50 specially trained Marines to protect the US Embassy in Sudan that found itself on Friday under assault. If approved, this deployment will follow the roughly 100 Marines that already have landed in Libya and Yemen.
US President Barack Obama urged Americans yesterday not to be disheartened by images of anti-American violence in the Islamic world, expressing confidence that the ideals of freedom America stands for will ultimately prevail.
“I know the images on our televisions are disturbing,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “But let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents.”
Obama assured that his administration was doing everything it could to protect Americans who were serving abroad.
“We are in contact with governments around the globe, to strengthen our cooperation, and underscore that every nation has a responsibility to help us protect our people,” he said. “We have moved forward with an effort to see that justice is done for those we lost, and we will not rest until that work is done.”
The Yemen-based branch of Al-Qaeda urged Muslims to step up protests and kill more US diplomats in Muslim countries. “Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar Al-Mukhtar's descendants ( Libyans), who killed the American ambassador,” the group said, referring to Tuesday's attack on the US Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab called on Muslims to attack the West in retaliation against the movie. “Al-Shabab mujahideen are urging people of Somalia to show their love for Islam and particularly to our Prophet Muhammad by making attacks against the West,” its spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said by telephone, without specifying any targets.
On Friday and yesterday in Mogadishu, a handful of people staged peaceful demonstrations chanting slogans that criticized the movie “Innocence of Muslims.”
Abdullahi Sheikh Osman, a respected spiritual leader in Mogadishu, came to talk to the protesters. “Don't kill innocent people for something they have not done,” he urged Muslims. “The man who made the nasty film is the Al-Qaeda of Christians. If Muslims make havoc, then they are rewarding the crazy man,” he said.
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