Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends this report:
Breaking news: A Norwegian soldier has been injured in Afghanistan after demonstrators threw a hand grenade into the Norwegian military camp in Meymaneh.
It doesn’t say in the article that the demonstration was a response to the alleged burning of the Korans at the American camp in Kabul, but I guess that’s the most likely reason.
More severe demonstrations are expected tomorrow after Friday prayers.
In 2006 Afghan demonstrators attacked the old Norwegian camp in Meymaneh with automatic weapons. The attack was a direct result of the Motoons.
The translated article from Aftenposten:
Norwegian soldier injured in a hand grenade attack in Afghanistan.
A Norwegian soldier has been injured after demonstrators threw a hand grenade into the Norwegian camp in Meymaneh in Afghanistan.
This has been confirmed by the Norwegian Defence department
On Thursday morning Afghan demonstrators threw rocks at the Norwegian military camp, and later in the afternoon someone threw a hand grenade into the camp. This resulted in one Norwegian soldier receiving shrapnel wounds to his foot, spokesperson for the Norwegian military, Ivar Moen tells Aftenposten.no
“We don’t want to speculate on the extent of the injury at the present time, but the soldier is now receiving medical treatment at the hospital inside the camp. The soldier’s next of kin have also been notified.”
Moen says that the demonstrators dispersed after the hand grenade incident and that no shots were fired by Norwegian military personnel. No one other than the Norwegian soldier was injured in the attack and at the moment everything is calm outside the camp.
“For the time being we don’t intend to leave the camp and apprehend any of the demonstrators,” Moen tells Aftenposten.no
New demonstrations are expected on Friday.
Moen confirms that they have received reports about new demonstrations on Friday.
“We have to implement various safety measures in preparation for tomorrow’s demonstration.”
John Espen Lien, spokesperson at the Norwegian operative Defence headquarter, confirmed earlier on Thursday that demonstrations had started outside the Norwegian led camp in Meymaneh in the northern part of the country.
“There are approximately 100 individuals outside the main entrance, and we have been informed that teargas and warning shots have been fired,” Lien told Aftenposten.no.
There are no reports of weapons being fired at the Norwegian camp, but at 13.15 the defence department received a report about a Norwegian soldier being injured by a hand grenade.
11 comments:
I ask the same question Michael savage asks- why are we still in Afganistan?
Anon - I agree 100%. I supported going in as a direct response to their (taliban's) support/complicity in the 9/11 attacks. Regime change ocurred, and now it's time to get out.
Afghanistan is a blight on the world; a perpetual basket-case with a broken society on par with Somalia and Bengladesh that will never amount to anything but a drain on the world's resources. My cousin is currently there making $250K a year as a "consultant" to an American private security firm. Good for her...bad for us tax payers.
Someone threw a GRENADE at soldiers who are serving their country? The authorities should have the perpetrator shipped off to Gitmo for the rest of his natural. Endy story.
Can you imagine if a white man had thrown a grenade into the grounds of a mosque?
Talk about double standards.
More rage is expected after Friday's "prayers".
There really can be only one answer to why are we still in Afganistan that is millions of dollars/pounds in corrupt aid and defence contracts.
JR
If I could have one Wish, it would be this:
I wish my government and military leaders would stop apologizing to our enemies for defending ourselves against their aggression.
The texts in question were destroyed because the enemy was using them as communication devices furthering their anti-U.S. agenda. In this they enemy was using their Qurans as a form of subversive secret-code system. Not so much secret, as protected. Pretty smart of them to use a communication method that we are afraid to compromise.
The fault of the Quran burnings is on the shoulders of the Islamists who used their theological text to further their subversive military and political agendas. It is not the fault of their enemy (us) for compromising this method of subversive communication.
What the military and administration should be doing is pointing out how the Islamists had desecrated their own religious texts, which then required their destruction.
Let the Islamists try to come up with an argument against us destroying these desecrated documents.
The sole reason we're still in Afghanistan is because we'd rather be fighting Islamists there than in some other nation.
If the enemy is attacking, and we have a chance to decide where the battle will take place, Afghanistan is a better choice than Israel or Kosovo, also better than fighting them in our own territory.
It pulls the resources of the Islamsists from other regions to this one, pulls them about as far away as we can possibly pull them from where we don't want them.
If we disengage from Afghanistan, they'll just reconstitute and resume their aggressions closer to our homes. And then we'll still have to fight them.
Lawrence - I am really, really tired of hearing that...
Norwegians for God's sake!
I say blow them back to where they want to be and come home.
We cannot change their society (for several years I thought we could, especially as it pertains to women.)
Now, I have no hope and am sick and tired of the western world trying to.
Come home one and all and let the Flintstones live in peace.
@Lawrence,
In war you do not apologise for burning your enimies theopolitical manifesto.
The West should withdraw and consolidate its territory in readiness for a more conventional engagement, their's is the tactic of asymetrical warfare and wars of attrition.
At home most of our compatriots can not even recognise the ideological enemy, that in itself is the potential of defeat.
JR
Muslims blow up each others' mosques and presumably all the Korans they contain on a routine basis with no such demonstrations of rage afterwards. So it's not pulverized Korans that exercise them, it's the chance to blame Americans for not following Muslim law sufficiently well, more strictly than the expectations placed on Muslims apparently. Are there no warriors for the West left who will stop being such foolish dhimmis and point out the thousands of instances where Muslims themselves break sharia law with impunity, then expect non-Muslims to follow sharia law more closely than the Muslim hypocrites themselves? (Another example is initiating military hostilities on supposed Muslim holy days - something Muslims do themselves as propitious but kick up royal hell about if non-Muslim forces don't respect what Muslims don't respect themselves).
"Demonstrators" are people that chant slogans and wave placards to 'demonstrate' their strength of their opinions.
People that throw grenades and other objects capable of inflicting injury are not "demonstrators", they are "hostile combatants" (probably of the non-lawful variety) and should be treated as such.
If you're going to fight a war, then fight a war. If not, then don't send your troops into harm's way. It's a very simple rule, but I think it rather a good one.
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