Cartoon Rioters Hit Afghan NATO Base

The United Nations evacuated staff and NATO peacekeepers rushed reinforcements to a remote Afghan town Tuesday after fierce fighting erupted during a protest against publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, officials said. Three people were killed and at least several dozen were injured.

The violence in Maymana, a city in the northwest, was just one of about half a dozen riots that erupted across Afghanistan over the cartoons in various European newspapers.

Protesters armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the NATO base in Maymana, burning an armored vehicle, a U.N. car and guard posts, said a doctor at Maymana Hospital.

Protesters grabbed seven assault rifles from police officers and beat several of them, said Sayed Aslam Ziaratia, the provincial deputy police chief.

He said three protesters were shot to death and 22 others were wounded, while some 50 others were hurt by tear gas the peacekeepers used to disperse the demonstrators.

One Norwegian soldier was injured by a splinter from a grenade, while another was hurt by a flying rock. Two Finnish soldiers were also hurt, Sverre Diesen, the Norwegian military commander, told reporters in Oslo. The base is home to 33 Norwegian troops, a police officer, 16 Finns, three Latvians and five or six Swedes, officials said.

A NATO spokesman in Kabul, Warrant Officer Cosimo Argentieri, said British troops were being rushed to Maymana to secure the airfield there.

Two American A-10 attack aircraft were on their way to the city and a German C-130 transport plane was on standby in case troops needed to be evacuated, Diesen said.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said the world body's nonessential staff in Maymana were being driven from the city to an undisclosed location for security reasons.

In neighboring Pakistan, 5,000 people chanting "Hang the man who insulted the prophet" burned effigies of one cartoonist and Denmark's prime minister.

And a prominent Iranian newspaper said it was going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust in reaction to European newspapers publishing the prophet drawings. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also said the West's publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian elections last month.

Iranian protestors blamed America, reports CBS News correspondent David Hawkins, even though President Bush has condemned the cartoons. Iran also announced Tuesday the suspension of all trade and economic ties with Denmark and will bar Danish products from entering the country in protest of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

"No consumer goods from Denmark will receive registration order and goods with Denmark as origin will be prevented from entering through customs," Commerce Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told state-run radio.

The cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in September, then reprinted by a Norwegian newspaper last month, setting off violent protests against the two countries across the Muslim world. The drawings, including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, have touched a raw nerve in part because Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

The cartoons have subsequently been reprinted in other media, mostly in Europe.

In Britain, where protests occurred largely in London, the judge at the trial of a radical cleric in Britain warned the jury Tuesday not to be "sidetracked" by the controversy sparked by newspaper caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The debate has been sharpened by photographs of a London demonstrator dressed as a suicide bomber and others bearing placards calling for violence, CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul, home to some 3,000 foreign diplomats, police used batons to beat stone-throwing protesters outside the Danish diplomatic mission office and near the offices of the World Bank on Tuesday.

More than 3,000 protesters threw stones at government buildings and an Italian peacekeeping base in the western city of Herat, but no one was injured, said a witness, Faridoon Pooyaa. Provincial administrator Asiluddin Jami said police fired warning shots to prevent the demonstrators from entering the buildings and the base.

About 5,000 people clashed with police in Pulikhumri town, north of Kabul, said Sayed Afandi, a police commander. There were no reports of injuries.

Demonstrations have been held across Afghanistan since last week, with the size of the crowds progressively swelling. On Monday, four people were killed and at least 19 hurt during clashes, including one outside Bagram, the main U.S. military base.

The protest in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar was the largest to date in that Muslim country against the prophet drawings. There were no reports of violence.

Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the province's top elected official who led the rally, demanded the cartoonists "be punished like a terrorist."

"Islam is a religion of peace. It insists that all other religions and faiths should be respected," he told the crowd. "Nobody has the right to insult Islam and hurt the feelings of Muslims."

The Iranian newspaper Hamshahri invited foreign cartoonists to enter its Holocaust cartoon competition, which it said would be launched on Feb. 13. The newspaper is owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is well known for his opposition to Israel.

Last year, Ahmadinejad provoked outcries when he said on separate occasions that Israel should be "wiped off the map" and the Holocaust was a "myth."

Elsewhere, China criticized newspapers for publishing the cartoons and appealed for calm among outraged Muslims. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said publishing the cartoons "runs counter to the principle that different religions and civilizations should respect each other and live together in peace and harmony."

Danish citizens were also advised to leave Indonesia, where rowdy protests were held in at least four cities Tuesday. Danish missions, which have been repeatedly targeted by protesters, have been shut because of security concerns, said Niels Erik Anderson, the country's ambassador to Indonesia.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had temporarily closed diplomatic missions in Palestinian territories, where it shares a building with the Danish mission. He warned his citizens to be wary if traveling to the Middle East.