Kurdish protesters clash with Salafis in Hamburg, 14 injured

BERLIN - The Associated Press

Protesters and policemen face each other during a demonstration against ISIL in Hamburg on Oct. 8. AFP Photo / DPA

Police in the north German city of Hamburg say 14 people were injured overnight in clashes between Kurdish protesters and members of a hard-line Islamic movement.

Police spokeswoman Karina Sadowsky said Oct. 8 that the clashes happened after hundreds of Kurds held a protest against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who are organizing an assault to capture the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane. Similar protests took place throughout Europe on Oct. 7 by Kurds seeking to draw attention to ISIL's onslaught against Kobane.

The violence erupted after a standoff between the protesters and members of a nearby mosque associated with the Salafist movement. Salafism is a strict interpretation of Islam, whose adherents are closely monitored by German security services.

Sadowsky says police used water cannons to break up the protest and arrested 22 people.