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Subscribe to RSSHigh-ranking Americans are gunned down in the place they thought was the safest in Afghanistan after days of rage over burnings of the Quran. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
Updated at 5:40 a.m. ET: KABUL -- Afghan authorities told NBC News on Sunday that they believe an intelligence officer may have been involved in the alarmingly brazen killing of two senior U.S. Army officers at the country's Interior Ministry.
Sources told NBC that Abdul Saboor, 25, was a missing person and a suspect in the Saturday killing of a lieutenant colonel and a major, which took place as rage gripped the country for a fifth straight day over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.
"Abdul Saboor is at large right now. He is the main suspect for us but we cannot draw any conclusions over whether or not he is the killer,'' sources told Reuters, adding that CCTV footage shows that Saboor had access to the Command and Control Center where the slain Americans were found.
A gunman shot the Americans as they sat at their desks inside the government ministry building, NBC News reported. They were shot in the back of the head, Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press.
Saboor fled the ministry after the slayings, counter-terrorism officials earlier told the BBC.
Underscoring the gravity of the attack and apparent security breach, Gen. John Allen, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ordered all NATO personnel recalled from Afghan ministries "for obvious force protection reasons."
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey offers analysis of the deaths and protests in Afghanistan.
The NATO recall affects advisers numbered "in the low hundreds," said Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the international force. Allen's unprecedented action in the decade-long war highlighted the growing friction between Afghans and their foreign partners at a critical juncture in the war.
Saboor's family were being interrogated, sources told NBC on Sunday.
A senior Afghan general told the BBC: ''The virus of infiltration has spread like a cancer and it needs an operation. Curing it has not helped."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Interior Ministry attack, saying it was retaliation for the Quran burnings, after the U.S. servicemen were found dead on the floor of an office that only people who know a numerical combination can get into, Afghan and Western officials said.
NATO recalls all staff from Afghan ministries
The U.S.-led coalition is trying to mentor and strengthen Afghan security forces so they can lead the fight against the Taliban and foreign troops can go home. That mission, however, requires a measure of trust at a time when anti-Western sentiment is at an all-time high.
About 30 people have been killed, including four U.S. soldiers, since the Quran-burning incident came to light Tuesday.
Afghanistan's president, meanwhile, renewed his calls for calm.
"Now is the time to return to calm and not let our enemies use this situation," Karzai said. Asked about the unprecedented recall of NATO staff, Karzai said it was an understandable step.
"It is a temporary step at a time when the people of Afghanistan are angry over the burning of the holy Quran," Karzai said. "We are not against this," he added.
NBC News, msnbc.com, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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I hate to say, I cant belive there have'nt been more attacks/deaths. We are in their home, buring their religion. I know I'd cause more than an uproar; if this wonderful Country of ours was occupied by another nation, burning Bible's for @!$%#'s and giggles!
I agree with H H Holmes,M.D., but lets not stop there, the woman and children will still breed, and do you think they care? fraid not. They'ed gladly die for Allah
Hell the US is still allowing these ragheads to grow opium. According to them beer is a sin but being a drug pusher is Okay.
What a screwed country.
There is nothing we need to send there that cannot be delivered via F/A 18 or sent with SEALS.
The Taliban had the opium crops down to nearly nothing. Read some history concerning your CIA and the world drug trade. Heroin was expensive before the US invasion in 2001. Simplistic world views such as bombing and killing people in contested political regions only show now little you understand about the policies of your gov't.
kill off all the opium plants, get out and talke our money with us. then they can kill each other off.
reduce drugs trafficing
Save US lives
Save US money
rid the earth of scum
I agree. And seeing as how there wouldn't be an islamic religion without judaism on which it's based let's nuke Israel and get rid of that religion also. While we're getting rid of several billion people based on the root religion of judaism and its cult offshoot islam let's just finish the job and get rid of the other cult offshoot religion based on judaism that gave us women being allowed to have souls in 1000 AD, the children's crusade, the spanish inquisition and all the rest of that frigging garbage. That should take care of the overpopulation problem along with the radical religionist problem. lol
Time to leave these cowards and punks to their own resources. Let them get some balls and take care of their own problems. Way too many brave American soldiers have given their lives for these cowards and scumbags.
I'm new to the msn sight and don't like commenting on things that move me personally, I have a nephew in that Region and will be worried till the day he comes home for good, So I may only post this one comment. ''There's only one solution and that's the final solution!!! Japan learned the ultimate lesson by sneaking up and murdering American Soldiers.
There is no solution to Afghanistan. We should have spent the minimum time necessary to kick the crap out of the Taliban and Osama's band of fruitloops and gotten the hell out. We should never have been in Iraq and concentrated solely on Afghanistan where we had a legitimate reason to be. We went into Iraq on a lie, lost over 4k service people with over 30k wounded to make billions for corporations like Hallibuton and Brown&Root, et. al., and the reason we haven't bailed on Afghanistan is for the same frigging reason...money for big business at the cost of American service people's lives.
JC,
What do you do for a living?
By the way. As far as Islam being an outgrowth of Judaism, I have news for you. The Qur'an totally contradicts the Torah.
Really? Is that the reason their 'holy' book has the same prophets just with a few added prophets? Is that the reason they consider followers of judaism and christianity 'followers of the book'? judaism is the root religion for both islam and christianity. If you didn't have judaism with its genocidal bloodbaths and blood sacrifice diety you wouldn't have islam or christianity. lol
I think people can make some good arguments for the oil factor of our being in the middle east, however, it's strange to me that the same people who we have trained to defend their own country now turn on us and kill our soldiers because someone burned their books. What a strange part of the world! Iran is on the verge of hanging a christian pastor because he converted from islam. I keep hearing about all the moderate muslims who do not want blood shed, why are they not lifting their voices aginst this insanity? Can anyone imagine America killing a christian for converting to islam? What a mess and how sad that all the worlds' children are going to inherit this global mess.
For Allah's sake can we just nuke these sand crabs and get it over with. They will be a pain in the ass of the entire world as long as they are on the earth.
I totally agree. While we're busy nuking Afghanistan let's just finish the job and nuke all the moslem countries over there and Israel and all the judaism followers seeing as how islam is based on that religion. Just get rid of all the problems over there at one time. But don't stop there. Let's get rid of the other cult offshoot religion based on judaism along with islam. You know the one that allowed women to have souls in 1000 AD, the one that gave us the children's crusade, the Spanish inquisition, Oliver Cromwell, Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Pat Robinson, Adrian Rodgers, Westboro Baptist and all the other fundy nutcakes that like to shoot doctors and blow up clinics. That should fix a frigging multitude of problems. lol
JC,
You left out Jessie Jackson, Rev Wright, Rev Sharpton..........................
I don't give a crap who they are. Black, white, or green polka-dotted. Using religion, any frigging religion, to justify genocide and/or mass murder and frigging theft means you need your arse shot by the closest rational member of the human race, numbly. Period.
JC,
So, why did you leave them out in the first place? Liberal pastors are out of bounds? Where you afraid you'd be called a "racist"?
Yes, you are allowed to say "ass".
How did you know my real name is "numbly"?
When so-called liberal religionists call for genocide and/or mass murder and theft based on their frigging 'holy' writings I'll call them exactly what they are, numbnuts. In the mean time I'll concentrate on the religionists that are actually calling and using that BS to justify their actions. 'Numbly' is just the shortened form of the above.
The whole damned Country is Taliban!! They are all just laying low until we leave, just as our Christians would do here if the tables were reversed. We got Bin Laden, now it's time to go home!!!
These are primitive people that do not want to change. Time for us to leave. We got the guy (Osama) that we went after, there is no good reason to try and change a society that doesn't want to do so...
Another debacle that the Republicans got us into. Billions of $$$'s and countless deaths of our men, for what? To try and change a society stuck in the middle ages. I don't think so...
If you were familiar with long term US gov't policies- there are books writtten by the men who designed these debacles- you would know that the big military bases in Iraq, Bahrain, and Afghanistan are part of policy goals made in the early 1980s. But, you don't. You might with effort, but it's much easier to just type 8th grade jingoistic war drivel, isn't it?
Dou44 Yeah, it is easier for them. The friggers are just as radical, stupid and nutty as any fringe moslem willing to blow themselves up. It'd be funny as hell if it wasn't so stupidly sad. lol
blow out the whole MIDDLE EAST...this will give us world peace..
THESE ARE NOT HUMANS, THEY ARE PRIMITIVE, IGNORANT MURDERING WAR MONGREL SAVAGES !
Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan..they knew Asama was there, Afghanistan..AND don't forget Israel they love to start the fire and sit back and watch...basically the whole middle east needs to become a huge Canyon or lake for any hope of world peace....
sounds cruel....but u know its true
the combination code to the door could have been given to someone else too
@Luis, Thats right. Is this the best they can do? use combination codes to open doors? how safe is that? Anyone of those idiots can just write the numbers down and give it to another person. How about using more sophisticated locks like fingerprint readers or other stuff like this. Even a card reader works better than those codes. And where are the cameras? CCTVs are very important. Right now they don't even have a photo of the suspect.
What we REALLY need is more apology from The White House!
I'm laughing.....I'm laughing some more.............
the more stuff like this happens, the more Ron Paul makes sense. bring the troops home, establish a sound monetary policy, mind our own business and enjoy prosperity and liberty. hmmmmmmmm makes sense doesn't it? RON PAUL 2012
Proving once again how brainwashed these towel heads really are.
Move to a safe distance and nuke them from space...it's the only way to be sure.
Yes, that sounds good. The sad thing is it won't happen. A more sadder thing is these idiots will breed more. Many don't have jobs or TV, so all they do is copulate more, producing more garbage to terrorize the world.
Blood (or the Quran) is thicker than water, something U.S. and European citizens have yet to learn. Muslims owe their allegiance to the Quran and their Imams, not to the U.S. Flag or Constitution. Wel will have to learn the hard way, I guess.
when we just face facts? the Afghans hate us and don't trust us and we have no reason to trust them. let's pull our material, money, and men out of there and let them decide for themselves if they want to join the modern world and live by civilized rules... you cannot force unreasonable people to be reasonable...
just think of what we could do with all that money and material here in this country....
They are a bunch of animals. We need to get the hell out of there and let them kill themselves off.
Getting the hell out I agree with. We're about 6 years or more behind on that. I couldn't care frigging less what they do to themselves.
The russians spent 10 years in Afghanistan before their wall came tumbling down. One pipe line isn't worth all this effort. Lets call it mission accomplished and go to Iran. I am joking.
NUKE Iran and call up the saudi's for rebuilding
Why in the world are we still there? Let the drug lords and Muslems have it. Put the troos in the Container yards and on the border. Change the law and let federal troops patrol these areas. It is time for the US to get Zenophobic like the Swiss and other countries . Oh yeah have them move the UN out of NY to say Kabul, Moscow or Peking.
Just blow these pricks off the planet, spray them with pig fat first. I'm sick of Arabs, the Koran piece of crap book, and all the other BS these muslim jerks want to spew.
If this doesn't show the emotional and mental instability of the Muslim religion, I don't know what will! If they had accidentally burned copies of the bible, no one would notice except fundamentalist Jesus Junkies, and they'd probably say, "Oh well, it was an accident. Forget it" But what do MUSLIMS do/ Have riots and kill people! OH YEAH, Let's worry about THEIR rights!!!!! Hey Allah? BITE ME!!!
We really need to just let them work things out. STOP GIVING THEM MONEY. Start focusing on our own country. The U.S needs to be in everyone's business and not their own. OR, you could just give that country a CLEAN SWEEP. They are all rebels and need to be put down. U give them money and look at them. The more you give them the more things they will do and come up with. American's are so stupid. Stop working with these people and seriously clean sweep them off the map.
Has anybody ever found out Why those Rag heads have Rags on their Head?? What are the Rags used for?? Is it their Towel or bed sheet?? What the heck is it?
aaalaaalaaalaaalaaaaaaaalalala death to the infidels !!!!!burn ALL the qurans !!kill all their goats and camels and leave them with nothing.
I think its like Kotex, you know. Used when they bleed.
Those rags are actually diapers...and we all know what is stored in a diaper! That's why they are all Shiite heads!
We have to pull out. These Afgan troops and police are so infilrated with the Taliban, that you don't know who is going to kill you at any time. You can't trust any of them. Let it become Russia's problem again when the Taliban start to supply arms to the Chechnian rebels.