Two NATO troops killed in Afghanistan Koran burning violence

Dead soldiers reportedly American, 3 Afghan protesters shot dead by police

Two NATO troops were gunned down by a man wearing an Afghan uniform in eastern Afghanistan Thursday.

An Afghan official told CBS News the dead troops were American, and were killed over because of the Koran burnings at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The official said that four more U.S. troops were wounded in the shooting, CBS News reported.

The shooting is the latest in a rising number of attacks on NATO troops
by Afghan police and soldiers or militants dressed in their uniforms.

With fury over the Koran burnings boiling over, Afghan police shot and
killed three protesters in two separate incidents Thursday where riots
broke out during demonstrations, The Associated Press reports.

The police say one protester was fatally shot and four people were
wounded, including two police officers, when security forces and some
protesters exchanged gunfire during a riot outside the police
headquarters in the northern province of Baghlan.

The fresh violence came one day after clashes between Afghan troops and
protesters broke out in the capital and in three eastern provinces over
the incident, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens wounded.

The Koran burnings have roiled Afghans and set off riots in an
illustration of the intensity of the anger at what they perceive as
foreign forces flouting their laws and insulting their culture. The U.S.
has apologized for the burnings, which took place at a military base
near Kabul, and said it was a mistake.

In the eastern Laghman province, protesters hurled rocks on Thursday
and tried to remove the razor wire from the perimeter of the American
base in Mehterlam, the provincial capital.

The demonstrators failed to push through and get inside the walls of
the facility, which also houses a U.S.-run provincial reconstruction
team - a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve
local governance, services and infrastructure.

The Laghman reconstruction team is made up of U.S. Army and Air Force
service members, and staff from the State Department and the U.S. Agency
for International Development.

"Hundreds of our people in Laghman province gathered because of the burning of the holy book by the Americans," said protester Mohammad Issa.

"Everyone is so emotional. The burning of Koran broke our hearts and we
are attacking the PRT because they are American," he said, using the
acronym for the provincial reconstruction teams.

Police managed to break up the demonstration using water cannons from
fire trucks, batons and by firing above the heads of the demonstrators.
From a nearby Afghan army base, Afghan soldiers also fired in the air.

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