Afghan soldier kills 2 Nato troops
2012-02-23 16:06
Kabul - An Afghan soldier joined protests on Thursday
against the burning of copies of the Qur'an at a Nato base and shot dead two foreign
troops, Western military sources said, as the Taliban urged security forces to
turn their guns on foreigners.
Protests against the burning of copies of Islam's most holy
book drew thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting "Death to
America!" for the third consecutive day in violence that has killed 11
people and wounded many more.
The Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign military bases
and kill Westerners in retaliation for the Qur'an burning at Bagram airfield on
Tuesday, later directing its plea to the security forces, calling on them to
"turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders", it said on its
site shahamat-english.com.
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 spokesperson 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 Qur'an 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.
Apology from Obama
Muslims consider the Qur'an the literal word of God and
treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst
forms of blasphemy and there could be further trouble on Friday when
congregational prayers are held.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he received a "deep
apology" from his US counterpart Barack Obama on Thursday, the
presidential palace said in a statement, adding that Obama described the Qur'an
burning incident as "an accident".
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.
Soldiers confined to barracks
"Our brave people must target the military bases of the
invaders, their military convoys and their invader forces," read an
e-mailed Taliban statement released by the insurgency's spokesperson Zabihullah
Mujahid.
"They have to kill them [Westerners], beat them and
capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Qur'an
again."
Most Westerners were already confined to their heavily
fortified compounds, including within the sprawling US embassy complex and
nearby embassies in central Kabul.
Around 400 protesters hurled rocks and set fire to cars at a
Norwegian-led military base in Faryab province on the Turkmen border, which is
centre for around 500 soldiers and civilians from Norway, Latvia, Macedonia,
Iceland and the United States.
Norway's ambassador to Kabul, Tore Hattrem, said no one was
hurt and there was minimal damage.
A small number of protesters in the eastern Kapisa province
took aim at the French military base there, though police deterred them
successfully, its police chief Abdul Hamid said.
Jihad
The venting of fury could complicate efforts by US and Nato
forces to reach agreement with the Afghan government on a strategic pact that
would allow a sharply reduced number of Western troops to stay in the country,
well beyond their combat exit deadline, to oversee Afghan forces.
Underscoring these concerns, hundreds of students in
Jalalabad rejected any strategic pact with the United States, saying they would
"take up jihad" if one were sealed.
The US government and the American commander of Nato-led
forces in Afghanistan apologised for the burnings after Afghan labourers found
charred copies of the Qur'an while collecting rubbish at Bagram.
A report into the incident by Nato investigators and a team
of senior Afghan clerics was to be handed to Karzai as soon as Thursday.
Martine van Bijlert, from the respected Afghanistan Analysts
Network (AAN), said the demonstrations were a combination of religious outrage,
pent-up frustration over economic and security conditions, and groups wanting
to stir trouble.
"There have been different kinds of outrage. One is the
bewilderment felt by many Afghans, and foreigners, that after ten years of
efforts in Afghanistan there was apparently still no understanding of how
inflammatory mistakes like that are made," van Bijlert said on the AAN
website.
"Second, there is the pent-up anger and frustration
with the international military, but also with life in general."
