Tanzanian Muslims Demonstrate Against U.S. Strikes on AfghanistanThousands of Tanzanian Muslims marched downtown here on Friday demonstrating against the ongoing United States military attacks on Afghanistan.The peaceful march is the first anti-U.S. protest in Tanzania since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. which killed some 5,000 people. As a revenge act, the U.S. began a bombardment of targets in Afghanistan on October 7 after the country's ruling Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, prime suspect behind the terror attacks, to the U.S. authorities for trial. Organizers said that the main purpose of the demonstration was to express Muslims' feelings on the ongoing military action against Afghanistan. The demonstrators appealed for the quick end of it, adding that it's not justify to kill so many Muslims in Afghanistan. "We pray that America stops immediately bombing Afghanistan,'' one slogan read. Tanzanian police have nodded the demonstration, which was declared to be an anti-terrorism one. Meanwhile, the police have also ruled out the existence in Tanzania of a terrorist cell linked to bin Laden, Saudi dissident. Bin Laden is also alleged to have been the brain behind the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam and Kenya's capital Nairobi on August 7, 1998, killing a total of 224 people and injuring over 5,000 others. |
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