Nightly News   |  February 24, 2012

Afghan army holds back protesters

Military leaders and politicians haven’t had much success in stopping the violence, but religious leaders have. NBC’s Atia Abawi reports.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> those anti-american protests across afghanistan are not letting up on this fourth day of outrage over the unintentional burning of copies of the koran by u.s. troops . seven more are dead and there were tense moments this morning for our own correspondent atia abawi when she and her camera crew found themselves in the middle of the chaos in kabul .

>> reporter: good evening, brian. there was a real fear here today's protest would be deadlier than what we've seen tuesday. demonstrators attacked the u.s. consulate. we got caught up in an angry crowd in kabul , holding batons. what protected us and most of afghanistan were the afghan security forces . protestors have gotten out of hand. the afghan army is trying to stop them. they are firing off warning shots. we nearly got stuck in the protests and we have to run. last night the commander of nato forces here went to the u.s. base where two americans were killed in yesterday's protest.

>> now is not the time for revenge. now is not the time for vengeance.

>> reporter: military leaders and politicians hachbtd had much success stopping the violence, but religious leaders have. in some mosques today, they tried to calm their congregations, reminding them the koran does not allow them to kill anyone, even westerners and nonmuslims. today that seemed to make a difference.

>> atia abawi, after a tough day in kabul .