Leaders trade blame over cartoon furor, deaths

Provincial governor Mohammed Latif said he suspected al-Qaida may have had a hand in the unrest. He said two men from eastern Afghanistan were arrested during the protest and were being interrogated.

“The violence today looked like a massive uprising. It was very unusual,” Latif said.

Indonesia’s foreign minister said Wednesday that radical groups around the world were exploiting public anger over the cartoons.

“The cartoons have hurt the Islamic community, so it has added to ammunition for (global) radical groups to exploit the situation and the whole thing has got out of proportion,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman said the United States and other countries are examining whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters.

“The United States and other countries are providing assistance in any manner that they can ... to see if this is something larger than just a small demonstration,” Col. James Yonts said.

Violence spreads
Elsewhere, about 300 Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron and tried to set one of the buildings on fire in a protest against the cartoons.

Sixty members of the mission were inside at the time, said Gunhild Forselv, a spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, or TIPH, which serves as a buffer between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the volatile city.

Eleven Danish members of TIPH left more than a week ago after protests against the cartoons began sweeping across the Muslim world, Forselv said.

The protesters chased away outnumbered Palestinian police stationed outside the mission, Forselv said. Reinforcements were called in to quell the disturbance.

CARTOON FURY U.S. cartoonists weigh in on the controversy

More than 1,000 people also rallied Wednesday in Muslim-majority Bangladesh’s capital, burning Danish and Italian flags. There were no immediate reports of violence.

Muslims also demonstrated for the third straight day in Indian-controlled Kashmir. In Turkey, police using armored vehicles blocked some 500 ultranationalist Turks from reaching the Danish Embassy and the demonstrators dispersed peacefully.

Leaders weigh in
Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has defended the right of the paper to publish controversial cartoons, while insisting that Denmark is “one of the world’s most tolerant and open societies.”

In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious beliefs as another French newspaper on Wednesday reprinted the prophet caricatures. Chirac said during a Cabinet meeting that he condemned “all obvious provocations likely to dangerously kindle passions.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday that publication of the caricatures was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in last month’s Palestinian elections.

“The West condemns any denial of the Jewish Holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities,” Khamenei said.

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