At least two US troops have been shot to death and four others wounded after an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them as fierce anti-US protests over the desecration of the Holy Qur’an are sweeping the war-battered Asian country.
“An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members in eastern Afghanistan today, killing two service members,” NATO-led ISAF said in a brief statement on Thursday.
Afghan officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV that the two troops were American, and were killed by an Afghan soldier furious over the burning of the Holy Qur’an and other Islamic reading material at the US-run Bagram Airbase, located 11 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the city of Charikar in Afghanistan's Parwan Province.
They added that the incident took place in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar Province.
Anti-American demonstrations are under way across Afghanistan in apparent anger over the sacrilege of Holy Qur’an at the main US military base in the country.
Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators besieged the headquarters of a military-civilian provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Mihtarlam, the capital of Laghman Province and located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the Afghan capital Kabul.
Senior police official Khalilul Rahman Niazi said he believed two people were wounded by gunfire from the base as they stormed the walls and hurled rocks under a pall of thick black smoke
Three protesters were killed and six other wounded in the Deh Rahwod district of Uruzgan Province, while another one died in Baghlan province. Another demonstrator was killed in Nangarhar province.
Furthermore, at least five Afghan protesters sustained injuries on Thursday as a bomb went off in Maymana, the capital of Faryab Province and located 430 kilometers (267 miles) northwest of Kabul.
------Agencies
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