Afghans watch as smoke billows from inside the parking area of a Norwegian-led military base during a protest in Faryab province February 23, 2012.

(Reuters) – Afghanistan wants NATO to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Koran at a NATO base, President Hamid Karzai’s office said on Thursday, after a third day of bloody protests over the incident.

It said NATO had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

Karzai had earlier accused a U.S. officer of “ignorantly” burning copies of the Koran, in an incident that has deepened anti-Western sentiment in a country NATO is trying to stabilize before foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014.

Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting “Death to America!” amid violence that has killed 11 people including two U.S. service personnel.

“NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators … promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the burning of the Korans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish at the sprawling Bagram air base.

Obama told Karzai the incident was not intentional.

The letter, which the White House said was a follow-up to a phone call earlier this week between the two leaders to discuss a “long-term partnership” between Washington and Kabul, was delivered to Karzai by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Karzai’s office said in a statement Obama had promised to investigate those involved in the incident.

Karzai said the American officer had acted “out of ignorance and with poor understanding” of the Koran’s importance, a presidential statement said.

TALIBAN CALL

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces to “turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders,” it said on its site shahamat-english.com.

A U.S. official in Washington said two NATO soldiers killed by a man in Afghan army uniform were Americans.

NATO confirmed a man in Afghan army uniform had killed two of its troops in the east, but declined to say if the shooting was connected to the protests.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

A protest of around 500 people turned violent in the capital Kabul, with police and plain-clothes intelligence officers charging demonstrators wearing bandanas and hurling rocks and sticks, firing low above their heads and sending them fleeing.

A wounded youth lay on a road, blood pouring from his side. Crouched over and cradling him, a relative appealed to the Afghan government.

“Ministry of the Interior! Don’t you see we are fighting NATO?” said the man.

Masked men sped by on a motorcycle blasting a battle song played by the Taliban insurgency, while police in machinegun-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 e-mailed 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 Koran again.”

FOREIGN BASES ATTACKED

Most Westerners were confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other 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.

Twelve protesters were wounded in the attack, the head of the regional hospital Abdul Alim said, but Norway’s ambassador to Kabul, Tore Hattrem, told Reuters no one was hurt and there was minimal damage.

A small number protested at a French military base in the eastern Kapisa province but police deterred them successfully, its police chief Abdul Hamid said.

The uproar could complicate efforts by U.S. 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.

Hundreds of protesting students in Jalalabad rejected any strategic pact with the United States, saying they would “take up jihad” if one were sealed.

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2 U.S. troops killed in Koran backlash

Afghan protesters throw rocks towards a water canon near a U.S. military base in Kabul February 22, 2012.

Two U.S. troops have been shot to death and four more wounded by an Afghan solider who turned his gun on his allies in apparent anger over the burning of Korans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, an Afghan official tells CBS News.

A statement from the International Security Assistance Force – Afghanistan, the international coalition in the country, confirmed that two troops were killed in Eastern Afghanistan on Thursday by “an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform.”

ISAF does not typically give the nationality of casualties until family members have been notified, but the CBS News source in the Afghan government said those killed and injured in the attack in the eastern Ningarhar province, along the border with Pakistan, were Americans.

The source also said the shooting appeared to be motivated by the burning of Korans at the sprawling U.S. Bagram air base, north of Kabul, but he did not provide additional details as to what led him to that conclusion.

The suspect apparently joined other protesters already demonstrating against the U.S. at an American military outpost and opened fire with an automatic weapon, according to the Afghan source.

There have been violent anti-U.S. protests for three days across Afghanistan, since the American military apologized for what it said was the accidental “improper disposal” of religious materials, including Muslim holy books, at Bagram. The U.S. is cooperating with the Afghan government to investigate the incident.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office said Thursday that it wants NATO to prosecute in a public trial whoever burned the books, the Reuters news agency reported.

The protests Thursday at U.S. and NATO military bases around Afghanistan and in the capital city of Kabul saw renewed clashes between demonstrators and police, with security forces in Kabul reportedly opening fire and wounding several protesters. Five protesters were reportedly killed by police at protests in the north and south of the country.

For U.S. and NATO commanders in Afghanistan, the main concern is what may come after Friday prayers in 24 hours. Friday is the holy day in the Muslim week, and protests are typically much larger as thousands of Muslim men flood out of mosques and converge in cities and towns in protest.

While calls from some Afghan parliamentarians for citizens to try and attack Americans are unhelpful – especially coming from an ally – they pale in significance against the potential damage which the religious leaders could inflict if they urge similar attacks in their Friday prayer speeches.

Karzai’s office also said Thursday that President Obama had sent a letter to him formally apologizing for the incident at Bagram, and top U.S. commander Gen. John Allen, who ordered the investigation, is making intense efforts to keep that probe as open as possible, but the investigation is not appeasing Afghans, who are tired of apologies.

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Categories: Afghanistan, Discrimination, Imperialism, Imperialist War, International, Racism