A protester was killed and seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack on their base in a sixth day of anti-American protests yesterday, police said, as President Hamid Karzai called for calm.
Now we have shown our feelings, its time to be peaceful
The latest violence came as police hunted an intelligence official suspected of killing two US officers at the interior ministry on Saturday – which led to Nato pulling all its advisers out of government ministries.
“The demonstrators hurled a hand grenade at US special forces base in Imam Sahib town of Kunduz province. As a result seven US special forces were wounded,” Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.
A spokesman for US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan said: “According to initial reports, an explosion occurred outside of an Isaf installation in northern Afghanistan early this afternoon.”
Local officials said one person was killed in the anti-US demonstration in Imam Sahib as some 2,000 anti-US protesters tried to march on the provincial capital but were stopped by police.
“One dead and seven wounded protesters have been brought to hospital from Imam Sahib district so far,” said hospital official Mohammadullah.
In the neighbouring province of Samangan, two protesters were wounded during a one-hour demonstration in Aybak city, provincial governor Khairullah Anosh said, but there were no reports of unrest elsewhere in Afghanistan.
The latest death brings the total toll in six days of demonstrations since the Koran burning at the Bagram airbase north of Kabul to more than 30.
President Karzai went on TV yesterday to appeal for calm. He “condemned with the strongest words” the treatment of Islam’s holy book and said the perpetrators should be punished, but told his countrymen: “Now that we have shown our feelings it is time to be calm and peaceful.”
He said he respected the emotions of Afghans upset by the Koran burning, but urged them not to let “the enemies of Afghanistan misuse their feelings”.
Taliban insurgents have called on Afghans to kill foreign troops in revenge for the incident, and claimed to have been behind the shooting deaths of the two US advisors in the interior ministry in Kabul.