Muslim clerics threat to call for holy war against US

A GROUP of Afghan Muslim clerics threatened yesterday to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran.

The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-US protests across the country since American forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted President George Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment."