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Bombing strikes home too

By Chris O’Connell, Special to the Daily Planet;Judith Scherr and Jon MaysDaily Planet staff
Monday October 08, 2001

Mecca Hassas of Oakland, 20, woke up Sunday morning to the news of the military strikes against Afghanistan, her homeland.  

“Just imagine sitting in front of the TV and seeing your country bombed,” she told the hundreds of people who came to downtown San Francisco Sunday to protest the military action. 

Hassas said that several of her family members were stuck in Jalalabad, one of the cities targeted by the bombing, and that she feared for their safety. 

The demonstration at Powell and Market streets was a peaceful event attended by 450 people, according to San Francisco Police Sgt. Kurt Brunneman. Protest organizers placed attendance at closer to 1,000 people. 

Standing on milk crates, Richard Becker of the International Action Center, one of the organizers of the event, criticized the air strikes and the humanitarian aid that the U.S. government is also dropping on Afghanistan. “They say they are going to drop food, but pallets of food are nothing more than bombs, when they’re dropped from 15,000 feet,” he said. 

Malalai Arsalai, 22, Afghani-American student, told demonstrators that despite the fact that United States officials have said that this is not a war against