Obama apologize for the burning of Quran copies
KABUL (Reuters): On Thursday President Hamid Karzai blamed a U.S. soldier for “ignorantly” burning copies of the Holy Quran at a NATO base, an accusation that could trigger more protests across Afghanistan.
Demonstrations against the burning of copies of the Holy Book of Islam drew angry Afghans to the streets, chanting “Death to America!” for the third consecutive day in violence that has killed 11 people including two foreign troops and wounded many more.
In the context President Barack Obama sent a letter to Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai apologizing for the incident occurred at the sprawling Bagram airbase. Obama told Karzai the incident was not intentional.
The letter, which the White House said was a follow-up to a phone call earlier this week between the two leaders to discuss a “long-term partnership” between Washington and Kabul, was delivered to Karzai by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Whatever could make it even harder for U.S.-led NATO forces to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
Karzai said the American officer had acted “out of ignorance and with poor understanding” of the Koran’s importance, a presidential statement said.
The President’s office at Kabul said an investigation into the Koran burning would most likely be concluded later on Thursday.
On Friday it is expected that protests could swell if mosque preachers focus on the incident, and stir up anti-American feelings, as they have done after similar incidents in the past on the Muslim holy day.
