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Thousands of British Protest Against Possible U.S. Military Strike
LONDON, Sept 22 (News Agencies) - Thousands of people took to the streets in the British cities of London and Glasgow on Saturday in opposition to United States plans for reprisal action against Afghanistan following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S., Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Police said 3,000 people demonstrated in front of Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, while around 1,000 were in Glasgow's George Square for a similar protest organized by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
CND chairwoman Carol Naughton, said, "Any military strike is going to kill yet more civilians who don't deserve to die. That will only create a spiral of violence."
Both events, held under the theme of "Justice not Revenge", began with a minute's silence in memory of the thousands of victims of the September 11th attacks in the U.S.
"I would not condone any act of terrorism, but any action should be done through the proper channels," Naughton said.
She said even a very targeted strike by special forces risked civilian casualties, "There can't be any kind of military strike. We've seen precision go wrong before, killing bunkers of women and children."
Scottish CND secretary, Brian Quail, told demonstrators in Glasgow that the "willful killing of innocent people can never be justified and is an act that merits unequivocal and unreserved condemnation.
"We demand that those responsible for the dreadful deeds in New York and Washington be brought to justice.
"But we will not uphold the calls for retaliation on more innocent victims, because the killing of innocent people cannot be justified as compensation for the loss of other victims," he went on to say.
Also present was Mohammed Asif, an asylum seeker, who relayed the current situation of Afghanistan. "There is nothing left in Afghanistan to be bombed and destroyed," he said.
"If there is any possibility of an attack, the attack should be targeted on the people that are accused and not on innocent people.
"But I personally think that innocent people are going to die in Afghanistan and there will be another New York and Washington in Afghanistan."
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