About 500 protesters threw stones at a US military base in Kabul, while in the eastern city of Jalalabad more than 1,000 demonstrators blocked the highway shouting "Death to Americans, Death to Obama", AFP journalists said.
Afghanistan is a deeply religious country where slights against Islam have frequently provoked violent protests and Afghans were incensed that any Western troops could be so insensitive, 10 years after the 2001 US-led invasion.
In Kabul, the crowd attacked anti-riot police, forcing them to retreat, an AFP photographer said. At least one protester was shot, he said, without being able to identify where the shots came from.
Troops guarding the base, Camp Phoenix, fired in the air, he said, while black smoke from burning tyres rose above the demonstration in the Hod Khail neighbourhood.
A second protest erupted in west Kabul, involving about 100 university students, a police spokesman said, adding that riot police were present and the demonstration was under control.
The Jalalabad protest also involved university students, who chanted "We cannot tolerate insults to the sacred religion of Islam" as they prepared to burn an effigy of US President Barack Obama, an AFP reporter said.
The crowd blocked the key highway from the capital Kabul through the eastern provinces to the Pakistani trade port of Turkham.
On Tuesday, protests erupted in Kabul and outside the US-run Bagram military base, north of the capital, as word spread that Nato troops had burnt copies of the Quran.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into an incident in which troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Qurans".
In an attempt to head off further protests in deeply religious Afghanistan, Allen repeated his apology late Tuesday and said that all troops would be trained in the "proper handling of religious materials no later than March 3".
For the first time, he admitted that copies of the Holy Quran had been burnt, saying they were "inadvertently taken to an incineration facility at Bagram airfield".
"Along with our apology to the Afghans is our certainty and assurance to them that these kinds of incidents, when they do occur, will be corrected in the fastest and most appropriate manner possible," said Allen.
"We've been shoulder to shoulder with the Afghans for a long time. We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them; we believe in their country, and we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."
Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP the military removed copies of the Holy Quran from the US-run prison at Bagram because inmates were suspected of using the holy book to pass messages to each other.
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All they need is only Quran. Give them ten copies each and they will live happily ever after. They need no food, clothing, shelter, education, roads, water, commerce, safety, security, health.
Burn tires, throw stones, and destroy property. It is your neighborhood.
@Xoya Are you serious? Have you read the NYT editorial or Ignatius editorial today? Even the Westerners are questioning the stupidity of the Americans in this case. If after 10 years of occupying Afghanistan, they still don't know how to handle religious material and are stupid enough to through such sensitive material with the rest of rubbish in the dump than what do you expect?? There is no other side of the story. Last month they circulated videos of Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. What is wrong with these Americans? Either they are callous or utterly reckless and stupid. This is not the first time reports of such incidents have come out of their bases. These so called 'mistakes' stem from their deep-rooted Anti-Islamic prejudices that are so widespread in the country.
Please People first listen to the other side of the story no one is Mad to disrespect any holy book. great now there will be a rally/ protest on this Chapter on friday & sunday another traffic jam they just needed a topic to block roads & cause traffic jams
What do you expect from the Americans, when all day their media networks run anti-Islam propaganda and whip up hysterical Anti-Muslim frenzy. Recently NYPD admitted that Anti-Islam videos were shown to train officers in FBI academy and NYPD police trainees, this Anti-Islam hostility is actually being propagated on a policy level in the American security agencies, army, bureaucracy, even the politicians take cheap shots to scare voters by reminding them of Obama's Muslim background. When you have such attitudes how do you expect their soldiers to respect our Holy Book and not desecrate it?? These apologies are hypocritical and ineffective until there is a widespread change in the American public and administrations mentality!!!
Ignorance all around!
Death To America
They have made very big mistake..No mercy for them.