Afghanistan: Three Killed And Several Injured As Taliban Open Fire On Protest
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Three people have been killed and several others injured in Afghanistan as Taliban soldiers opened fire at a protest.
Residents took to the streets in the Afghan city of Jalalabad today, August 18, to stand up to the takeover of Taliban militants over the last few days.
Protestors gathered in a square in the city, which is located approximately 90 miles to the east of Kabul, and attempted to lower the flag of the Taliban and raise Afghanistan’s national flag.
To break up the demonstration, militants opened fire and beat people with batons, according to an Afghan health official cited by the Associated Press, per Sky News.
The official said at least six people had been wounded as a result of the use of force, though Reuters has reported at least three people were killed while a dozen more have been left injured.
Protestors gathered ahead of Afghanistan’s independence day, which takes place tomorrow, August 19 and commemorates the end of British rule in 1919.
Reporter Rob McBride, who works for Al Jazeera and is reporting from Kabul, said ‘a fairly sizable part’ of Jalalabad’s residents had been resisting the replacement of Afghanistan’s national flag with that of the Taliban; a white banner with an Islamic inscription.
McBride commented:
We have seen uploaded on social media, protests in the streets of hundreds if not thousands of people waving the national flag.
We know that they have put the flag back up again in an important square in Jalalabad and that there have been clashes with the Taliban …
Reuters cited two witnesses at the scene and a former police official, with the witnesses reporting that militants used their deadly weapons while residents tried to install Afghanistan’s flag.
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Topics: News, Afghanistan, Protest, Taliban
