NATO's 'improper disposal' of Qurans inflames Afghan protesters (+video)

America's hopes of winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people have suffered yet another blow.

Plans by NATO personnel to burn Qurans at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul have set off violent protests, with at least 1,000 demonstrators throwing stones and calling for US and NATO forces to leave Afghanistan.

That burning Qurans might anger Afghans has been made pretty clear before: In 2010 a US evangelical pastor, Rev. Terry Jones, threatened to burn Qurans outside his Florida church, and a year later, when followers of that US pastor actually carried out the threat. Eleven United Nations personnel were massacred in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif in April 2011, after protestors broke into their compound, apparently seeking revenge for the Reverend Jones’s actions. A separate protest in the southern city of Kandahar at the time left nine people dead and dozens injured.

On Tuesday, the NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen, released a statement apologizing for the planned burning, saying it was not intentional according to The New York Times:

“ISAF personnel at Bagram Air Base improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans,”  the statement said.

“When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities.”

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