NATO: Taliban will use anger at Koran film

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- NATO chiefs say extremists will try to exploit Afghan anger about a controversial Dutch film attacking the Koran, causing possible problems for European troops.

Supreme Allied Commander Europe U.S. Gen. John Craddock said Taliban insurgents and their supporters would use feelings about the film among Afghanistan's deeply religious rural populations to whip up violence against NATO troops in Afghanistan, notably the 1,650-strong Dutch contingent in the southern province of Uruzgan.

''The problem is the extremists. They want to use this as a rallying point to their advantage,'' he told a news briefing at the headquarters of the 43,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.

Craddock said NATO commanders were appealing to local leaders not to hold international peacekeeping troops responsible for whatever feelings the 15-minute film might invoke when it is released by controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders later this month.

''We have appealed to the leadership (in tribal areas): Don't hold the soldiers accountable, it's not fair," he said, adding, "I think the leaders have understood that.''

Thousands of people protested in towns across Afghanistan earlier this month against the film -- and against the republication by some Danish newspapers of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world after their first airing in 2006.

The protestors burned Dutch and Danish flags, and called for their troops to leave Afghanistan, which analysts said was the first time such a demand had been raised in popular demonstrations since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in December 2001.

Wilders, who has called the Koran a "fascist" book, has not said when or where he will unveil his film, which is called "Fitna" -- "Ordeal" in Arabic.