Afghans protest US move to unfreeze $3.5B for 9/11 victims

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital have condemned President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the U.S. for families of America’s 9/11 victims. They say the money belongs to Afghans. Protesters gathered Saturday outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The order, signed by Biden on Friday, allocates another $3.5 billion in Afghan assets for humanitarian groups to provide aid to Afghans. The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of collapse after international money stopped coming to Afghanistan with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban.