July 26, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1424

KABUL, July 25: Scared Afghans in the southern province of Kandahar hid holy Quran and other religious items before United States troops searched their village, afraid the Americans would kill them for being Muslims, a United States military spokesman said on Friday.

“The village of Atel Mohammad removed all of their religious items, including the Qurans from the village before Special Operations Forces and AMF (Afghan militia forces) arrived,” Colonel Rodney Davis said in a statement from Bagram air base, 50 kilometres north of Kabul.

During the search, a date for which was not given, Special Operations Forces found the items hidden in a flour sack in a nearby dry creek bed and returned them to the elder of the village, near Spin Boldak town on the Pakistan border.

“The elder, once pressed for an answer, stated that some of the villagers felt that the Americans would kill them for being Muslims and these religious items were proof of their faith,” Davis said.

“Special Operations Forces explained in depth that this was not the case. The villagers secured the items and returned them to their homes,” he said.

It was not known who had told the villagers that American troops would kill them for being Muslim.

Kandahar province was the former heartland of the ousted Taliban regime and remnants of the hardline militia and its al-Qaeda allies continue to launch regular attacks on US-led forces and government targets.

US troops last weekend killed up to 24 Taliban in a failed ambush by the fighters near Spin Boldak.—AFP