Afghans Riot at U.S. Base

Hundreds of protesters angered by the detention of eight villagers tried to batter down a gate Tuesday at the U.S. military’s main Afghan base here, hours after a battle in the south that a provincial governor said killed at least 50 suspected Taliban fighters.

The Bagram area, an hour’s drive north of the capital, Kabul, has been largely peaceful since a U.S.-led military campaign toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda terrorist camps.

The riot erupted after the crowd gathered to protest the villagers’ detention at the base, where thousands of U.S. and other foreign soldiers live behind razor-wire fences.

Demonstrators chanted, “Die, America!” and hurled stones at a passing convoy of six U.S. military vehicles, smashing some windows. As soldiers inside the cars fired handguns into the air, the vehicles sped into the base and the protesters pursued, trying to push down a metal gate guarded by Afghan troops.

Guards used sticks to drive back the mob as other troops fired into the air with assault rifles and shouted at the protesters to go home. Most dispersed.

The eight detained men were “suspected of planning and conducting attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces” and had “materials used to make improvised explosive devices in their possession,” the U.S. military said in a statement.

The demonstrators said they were angry that U.S. troops arrested the villagers late Monday without consulting local authorities. “We have supported the Americans for years. We should be treated with dignity,” said Shah Aghar, 35.

In the south, Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said Afghan and U.S. troops inflicted heavy casualties in an attack on a guerrilla base in the Dihrawud district. He said two Afghan soldiers and at least 50 suspected insurgents were killed and about 25 captured.

A U.S. military statement Monday said heavy fighting in that area had killed one American, an Afghan soldier and 11 guerrillas.