Anti-Israel protest converges on US consulate in Pakistan

Some 2,000 protesters in the Pakistani port city of Karachi burn US flags and chant anti-Israel slogans.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
karachi anti-israel 88 (photo credit: )
karachi anti-israel 88
(photo credit: )
Security forces used tear gas and batons to repel anti-Israel protesters who tried to attack a US consulate in Pakistan on Sunday, as tens of thousands in cities across Europe, the Middle East and Asia demonstrated against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Some 2,000 protesters in the Pakistani port city of Karachi burned US flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans, and several hundred of them marched on the US Consulate, senior police official Ameer Sheikh said. "They were in a mood to attack," Sheikh said. "They were carrying bricks, stones and clubs." A US Embassy spokesman in Islamabad, Lou Fintor, said the protesters did not get close to the consulate, which was closed Sunday. An estimated 2,500 Lebanese and Palestinians meanwhile protested peacefully in downtown Beirut, waving Palestinian flags and calling on the international community to intervene in the Israeli attack. A convoy of some 15 ambulances from an Islamic medical society sounded their sirens for 20 seconds in solidarity with Gaza medics. Leftist participants set fire to a large Israeli flag, while children taking part in the protest held bloody dolls representing Palestinian children killed in Gaza. The death of children in the Gaza assault has become an enduring theme at protests. Children carrying effigies of bloody babies headed the march attended by thousands in Brussels, which later turned violent before police intervened with water cannons and arrested 10 protesters. Belgian lawmaker Richard Miller told Le Soir newspaper that he was hit in the face by a stone thrown by a demonstrator.