12 Dead at Afghan Anti-NATO Protest

BBC reports:

At least 12 people have been killed in northern Afghanistan during a protest against an overnight raid by Nato and Afghan forces, hospital sources have told the BBC.

About 80 demonstrators were injured in the clashes in the city of Taloqan.

Security officials said some of the demonstrators were armed.

They were protesting against the raid in which four people - who Nato said were insurgents - were killed.

An official in the city said that the Afghan National Army and a rapid reaction force had been deployed in the city and the situation was now mostly under control.

The official said that some of the 2, 000 demonstrators were armed and had destroyed public and private property. He said reinforcements had been called into Taloqan from neighbouring Kunduz province.

The violence appears to have begun when protesters angered over the night-time raid placed the bodies of those killed in the main square of Taloqan.