Thousands of Afghans protest Gaza raids
KABUL Jan 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of Afghans protested against Israel's week-long military offensive in the Gaza Strip, outside two of Afghanistan's biggest mosques after Friday prayers.
More than 400 Gazans have been killed since Israeli air forces began bombing the Hamas-controlled territory as part of a planned military operation to weaken the Islamist faction.
More than 1,000 protestors gathered outside the Nabawi mosque in Kabul waving green Hamas flags, chanting "Death to America, Israel and Britain". They burnt a cardboard effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert near a soft toy orang-utan with "USA" written on its forehead.
"We demand from President (Hamid) Karzai to condemn this action. He is the president of an Islamic country ... If Karzai does not condemn this action we will not accept the foreign forces in Afghanistan," protestor Adbul Hamid said.
Tensions between the almost 70,000 NATO-led and U.S. military troops in Afghanistan, who are fighting a resurgent Taliban, and the Afghan government have increased in recent months over the number of civilians killed in foreign military operations.
Elsewhere, about 1,000 protestors marched through the centre of Herat City, in the western province of Herat, and gathered outside the Juma mosque burning flags with the slogan "Down with Israel".
"We are gathered here to share our voice with the depressed and defenceless people of Palestine in order to be able to do a small thing for the Muslim people of Palestine," said Farooq Hossaini, a cleric at the protest in Herat. On Monday, the Afghan foreign ministry condemned Israel's attacks and demanded an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza.
Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas also called on the world's Muslims to unite and wage war against Israel in response to its air strikes. (Reporting by Mohammad Aziz and Jalil Ahmed Rezayee; Writing by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
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