Anti-US protests near scene of airstrike скачать в хорошем качестве

Anti-US protests near scene of airstrike

(15 Jan 2006) SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot of rally 2. People chanting slogans: "Those who are friends of America, are traitors" 3. Various of rally 4. UPSOUND (Pashtu) Aizaz-ul Mulk Afkari, local administrator and leader of Hezb-ul Mujahedeen militant group: "Pakistan is a nuclear power and America has tightened the siege against it. Nowadays Pakistan is working under American law." 5. Various of people chanting STORYLINE Chanting "Death to America",angry anti-US Islamic groups began nationwide protests on Sunday against a purported Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) air strike that Pakistan says killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target - top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri. On Sunday, more than 600 people braved rain and cold to rally against the air strike in the town of Samarbagh, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Damadola, where the strike killed at least 17 people, including women and children. Protesters chanted: "Death to America", "Death to Bush" and "A friend of America is a traitor", while also denouncing Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf for cooperating with the United States. A speaker at the rally said Washington was targeting Pakistan because of its nuclear weapons. "Pakistan is a nuclear power and America has tightened the siege against it," said Aizaz-ul Mulk Afkari, a leader of Hezb-ul Mujahedeen militant group. A coalition of anti-US Islamic groups planned more protests elsewhere later on Sunday. On Saturday, about 8,000 tribesmen staged a rally in the town of Inayat Qala and a mob set fire to the office of a US-backed aid agency in a nearby village. Meanwhile, Musharraf warned his countrymen not to harbour militants, saying it would only increase violence within Pakistan's borders. Many in the nation of 150 million people object to Musharraf's alliance with Washington in the war on international terror groups, seeing it as a veiled campaign against Muslims. The Pakistani government has protested to the US Embassy amid growing frustration over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the frontier, apparently aimed at Islamic militants. Residents of Damadola denied that militants were in their village, but some news reports quoted unidentified Pakistani officials as saying up to 11 extremists were believed to be among the dead. A Pakistani intelligence officer told The Associated Press that some bodies were taken away for DNA tests. He didn't say who would conduct the tests. However, a law enforcement official in Washington said the FBI expected to conduct DNA tests to determine the victims' identities, although Pakistan hadn't yet formally requested them. A large number of al-Qaida and Taliban combatants, including al-Zawahri and Osama bin Laden, are believed to have sought refuge along the rugged, porous and ill-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two senior Pakistani security officials confirmed to AP that al-Zawahri was the intended victim and said Pakistan's assessment was that the CIA acted on incorrect information. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...