Kabul: An Afghan soldier joined protests on Thursday against the burning of copies of the Quran at a Nato base and shot dead two foreign troops, western military sources said.
The killings came hours after the Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign military bases and kill Westerners in retaliation for the burning of the Qurans at Bagram airfield on Tuesday.
Eleven people have died in demonstrations across the country since then and 17 people have been wounded. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of several cities, chanting "Death to America!" and smashing cars, buildings and shops.
In a demonstration in eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday, an Afghan soldier turned his gun on Nato soldiers, local officials and western military sources said. A provincial spokesman said the soldier then escaped.
Nato confirmed a man in Afghan army uniform killed two of its troops in the east, but declined to say if the shooting was connected to the protests.
The Quran burnings at the vast Bagram base north of Kabul, which the United States has said were unintentional, could make it even more difficult for US-led Nato forces to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
Desecration
Desecration of the Quran is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy by Muslims.
A small protest of around 500 people also turned violent in the capital Kabul, with gunfire crackling above the city as police and plain-clothed intelligence officers charged demonstrators wearing bandanas and hurling rocks and sticks, firing low above their heads and sending them fleeing.
A wounded youth lay on the frozen asphalt on a road, blood pouring from his side. Crouched over and cradling him, a relative appealed to the government to not hurt its own people.
"Ministry of the Interior! Don't you see we are fighting Nato?" said the man, who did not give his name. Masked men sped by on a motorcycle blasting a battle song played by the Taliban insurgency, while police in machine gun-mounted pick-up trucks picked up the wounded.
"Our brave people must target the military bases of the invaders, their military convoys and their invader forces," read an emailed Taliban statement released by the insurgency's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
"They have to kill them [Westerners], beat them and capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Quran again."
