JALALABAD, Afghanistan: Gunmen attacked a building of Afghan state television in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday and engaged in a gunbattle with security forces, the provincial governor’s spokesman said.
“We can confirm that a number of insurgents have entered the building,” said Attaullah Khughyani. “Who they are, and what their target is, is still not clear.”
He said there appeared to have been at least three attackers, two of whom had blown themselves up while at least one was still fighting.
Heavy gunfire could be heard from around the building of RTA, Afghanistan’s national broadcaster, located close to the provincial governor’s compound.
Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar, the eastern province on the border with Pakistan where Islamic State fighters have established a stronghold, but there is also a strong Taliban presence in the region.
Insurgents fighting to oust the Western-backed government in Kabul have conducted a series of high-profile attacks this year on targets including Afghanistan’s largest military hospital and a military base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. (Reporting by Rafiq Shirzad)
Gunmen attack state TV station in Afghanistan
Gunmen attack state TV station in Afghanistan
US lawmaker Fine criticized by rights advocates, Democrats after anti-Muslim remarks
- Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others
WASHINGTON: Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican US lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.
