KABUL: An Afghan soldier on Thursday shot dead two Nato troops, the military said, as fierce anti-US protests over the burning of the Quran swept the country.
“An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in eastern Afghanistan today, killing two service members,” ISAF said.
ISAF did not identify the nationalities of the dead soldiers and gave no further details of the incident, which came on the third day of fierce protests against the burning of the Quran at a US-run military base.
Asked whether the events were connected, an ISAF spokesman would only say: “There was a demonstration in the province.”
Afghan troops defending a foreign base in eastern Nangarhar province had “joined demonstrators and opened fire on foreign troops”, a protester told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency.
“Four foreign soldiers were killed and two more injured when the Afghan forces opened fire on them. An Afghan cop was killed and three more injured when the foreign forces returned the fire,” he said.
Just hours earlier, Taliban insurgents exhorted demonstrating Afghans to attack and kill foreign troops to avenge the burning of Qurans at the US-run Bagram base north of Kabul.
“You should bring the invading forces' military bases under your brave attack, their military convoys, kill them, capture them, beat them and teach them a lesson that they will never again dare to insult the Holy Quran,” the Taliban said in a statement.
Afghanistan is a deeply religious country where slights against Islam have frequently provoked violent protests, and many Afghans are incensed at the discovery of charred Qurans at the US-run Bagram airbase north of Kabul.
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@stacey Stanzione: You have no moral justification of presenting your point of view after killing millions of muslims ... you will be in this position when Muslims surpasses the number of dead muslim by killing christians
So I guess the cowardlyt attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the poor souls who died in that field is our fault too. I guess if we would just stop being Infidels, it would stop being all our fault.
So if someone burns the Quran, you go and kill some other people in retaliation? Pathetic!!!!!
When going gets tough, organize jihad is the mantra. Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend will be full of protests as they have nothing else to do.
Pity these individuals.
The unrest in Afghanistan/ Pakistan is in the interest of US/ NATO to keep them in the region for long time. They are already finding excuses to stay longer.
Americans create their own problems and when they suffer they find fault with others. They messed up in Iraq so they blame Iran. They messed up in Afghanistan so they blame Pakistan. They messed up their economy so they blame China. Seriously, these people need to take a step back and do some serious introspection on what they have become, and their political, economical and military shenanigans and blunders of the last decade.Just like the later half of the 20th century britain became the most despised country because of their colonial past atrocities, in the 21st century the US is most despised because of the way they have abused their powers globally. First they messed up South American until those guys kicked them out and became leftist, then they messed up South East Asia until those guys kicked them out too. Still that wasnt lesson enough for them so in the last 10 years they messed up the Middle East and subcontinent and now they are paying the price. This is what you get when you pursue hidden agendas with insincere intentions and violate international laws - in the long term it only backfires!
The sooner the Americans get out the better for the whole region and please dont even think of intervening in pakistani in any capacity. Iraq or Afghanistan,you leave behind places that are worse in condition than before you came.