Violence follows sacking of Afghan warlord governor

Demonstrators stormed UN compounds and stoned US soldiers in the Afghan city of Herat, a day after the government sacked its warlord governor.

Demonstrators stormed UN compounds and stoned US soldiers in the Afghan city of Heart, a day after the government sacked its warlord governor.

About a dozen people were reported injured – most with bullet wounds – as security forces tried to keep order in Heart following the replacement of Governor Ismail Khan. The office of one international aid group was also ransacked.

The violence was a challenge to US-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai, who ordered Khan’s removal and has sent more than 1,000 Western-trained national army soldiers and police to Heart ahead of presidential elections on October 9.

Karzai condemned the rioters, saying they were damaging Afghanistan’s fragile peace process.

“That’s not what this country wants, and that’s not what the people of Heart want,” Karzai told reporters. “We will deal with that strongly.”

Hundreds of people gathered outside the city headquarters of the United Nations chanting slogans against US troops and the government, witnesses said.

Demonstrators broke through the gate, setting at least one vehicle alight and sending UN staff scuttling into their onsite bunker, UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said windows were broken and fires started around two UN compounds and the office of the Afghan human rights commission.

Police and soldiers trying to control the crowd fired warning shots but still wounded as many as 10 people, Mashal said.

Mashal maintained that the soldiers had only fired into the air.

A relief worker contacted by telephone in the city said a mob broke into the office of the Danish Afghan Committee, looted equipment and set fire to the building.

The group’s handful of foreign staff, who were unhurt, were waiting for an American helicopter to lift them from the compound and take them to the airport, she said.

Witnesses said American troops were also seen on the streets and that several helicopters were circling over the city.

The US military made no comment on the incidents, which occurred as Khan’s replacement, the former Afghan ambassador to Ukraine, arrived at Heart airport.

But it said that two of its soldiers got into trouble in the city on Saturday evening, when a rock-throwing crowd attacked their broken-down Humvee.

A passing patrol of some 25 troops from the Afghan National Army came to their aid.

It said two civilians were wounded, one of whom was shot. Both were reportedly taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Staff at the city’s main hospital, however, said a total of four demonstrators were admitted with injuries.

More than 1,000 members of the new, US-trained national army and German-trained national police have been deployed to Heart province since fighting between Khan and rival warlords left dozens dead last month.

Several dozen American troops are based in Herat on a mission to promote stability and reconstruction. US trainers are also accompanying the ANA units deployed to the area.