The U.S. once hoped its investigation into its troops? burning the Koran would calm outrage in Afghanistan. But that was before four Americans were killed in the resultant violence, including two troops killed inside the very Interior Ministry that Washington bankrolls. Now, as the military prepares to release the results of its inquiry this week, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, says the best the Washington can hope for is for the popular anger to peter out.
Protests ? some better called riots ? have spread into their sixth day. Most shockingly, an Interior Ministry employee killed two U.S. servicemembers working in the ministry?s Kabul headquarters, reportedly by shooting them in the head on Saturday with a silencer-equipped pistol. Pentagon press secretary George Little called the killings ?murder.?
The killings prompted Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to pull all U.S. military advisers out of Afghan government ministries in Kabul as a protective measure. Allen?s subordinate commanders frequently tell reporters that U.S. and Afghan security forces work together intimately; the prompt removal of advisers indicates a distrust below the surface. Crocker told CNN on Sunday that he had issued a complementary order for U.S. diplomats.
Associated Press Pentagon reporter Robert Burns tweeted on Sunday that the Pentagon has cancelled a visit from Afghan ministers scheduled for this week. President Hamid Karzai waited until the sixth day of riots to issue a call to avoid violence. Even so, on Sunday, a grenade thrown by protesters in northern Afghanistan wounded at least six U.S. troops.
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