KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan troops opened fire on demonstrators Monday, leaving at least four people dead, while Iranian police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters hurling stones and firebombs at the Danish Embassy in Tehran, Iran, as anger mounted over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.\nPolice had encircled the walled brick villa housing the Danish mission in the Iranian capital, but the crowd of about 400 protesters ignored orders to break up, only running into a nearby park after tear gas was fired. Earlier in the day, 200 student demonstrators threw stones at the Austrian Embassy, breaking some windows and starting small fires.\nThe worst of the violence in Afghanistan was outside Bagram, the main U.S. base, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility, said Kabir Ahmed, the local government chief.\nTwo demonstrators were killed and 13 people, including eight police officers, were injured, he said. No U.S. troops were involved in the clashes, the military said.\nAfghan police also fired on protesters in the central city of Mehtarlam after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives, Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa said. Two protesters were killed and three other people were wounded, including two police officers, officials said. The demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at government offices.\nThe unrest spread to East Africa as police in Somalia fired in the air to disperse stone-throwing protesters, triggering a stampede in which a teenager was killed and raising the death toll to six in protests related to the publication of the series of cartoons satirizing Islam's most revered figure.\nAt least nine people were injured in the melee outside the Danish Embassy in Iran, which lasted about an hour.\nTwo trees inside the compound -- which was believed to have been evacuated earlier -- were set on fire by the firebombs. The embassy gate was burned, as was a police booth along the wall protecting the building. The mob, which included about 100 women, burned a Danish flag and chanted "God is great," but they failed to breach the police cordon.\nAlso Monday, 200 members of Iran's parliament issued a statement warning that those who published the cartoons should remember the case of Salman Rushdie -- the British author against whom the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death warrant for his novel "The Satanic Verses."\nLebanon, meanwhile, apologized to Denmark a day after thousands of rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to the building housing the Danish mission in Beirut to protest the caricatures. At least one person died, 30 were injured and about 200 people were detained in Sunday's violence, including Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese, officials said.\nThe Beirut violence came a day after violent protests in neighboring Syria, including the burning of the Danish and Norwegian missions. The United States accused the Syrian government of backing the protests in Lebanon and Syria, an accusation also made by anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians.\nWashington condemned the violence and urged governments to take steps to cool tensions over the 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September and recently reprinted in European and other media.\nThe drawings -- including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse -- have touched a raw nerve, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.\n"We understand fully why people, why Muslims, find the cartoons offensive," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Those who disagree with the views that were expressed certainly have the right to condemn them, but they should be peaceful."\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as he entered the opening session of a three-day U.N. Environment Program in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, implied publication of the caricatures had been a matter of poor judgment, but added: "I don't think that it justifies the attacks on innocents. I would appeal to all concerned, all people of authority and influence, to engage in dialogue and bring this to an end."
The European Union issued stern reminders to 18 Muslim countries that they are obliged under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect foreign embassies, and Austria said it had expressed concern for the safety of diplomatic missions to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.\nThe protesters in Afghanistan threw stones at the U.S. base and smashed a guard post. Some of those in the crowd then shot at the base with assault rifles, prompting the police to return fire, Ahmed said.\nU.S. military spokesman, Lt. Mike Cody, said American troops did not fire on the crowd and security was left to the Afghan police.
