KABUL - The top US commander in Afghanistan called on his troops to resist any urge to avenge the death of two American soldiers killed in riots over the burning of Korans at a US base, even as seven protesters were killed by Afghan security forces amid renewed demonstrations yesterday.
The anti-American demonstrations by thousands of Afghans who took to the streets after midday prayers were further evidence that President Obama’s apology has failed to quiet the outrage over what the United States says was the inadvertent destruction of the holy books.
The killing of the two US soldiers and the civil unrest have further strained Afghanistan’s relations with the United States. President Hamid Karzai is trying to negotiate a long-term partnership agreement with the United States to govern the activities of US forces in his country after 2014, when most foreign combat troops will have left or taken on support roles.
The violence against coalition troops also comes at a time when many countries contributing to the force are seeking to accelerate their withdrawal from what has become an unpopular and costly war that has dragged on for more than 10 years.
At least 20 people, including the two US soldiers, have been killed in four days of violence.
Protesters have ignored appeals by Karzai, parliamentarians, and some clerics for an end to the violence until an investigation into the incident at Bagram Air Field is concluded.
Afghan officials said seven people were killed around the country yesterday by Afghan security forces trying to disperse crowds or responding to gunfire from protesters.
One of the dead was part of a crowd trying to storm a Hungarian military base in northern Baghlan Province. Six others died in western Herat Province, including three people who died when a truck full of ammunition exploded after protesters set it ablaze, the governor’s office said.
Anti-American protesters also gathered in several locations around Kabul, including in the city’s east, where a demonstrator, his clothes covered in blood, was carried from the scene as about 200 police tried to push the crowd back.
Police sprayed automatic rifle fire over the heads of protesters chanting “Death to America!’’ in an effort to prevent them from reaching the defense ministry, close to the American Embassy.
US General John Allen, who commands all US and coalition troops, traveled late Thursday to the American base in the east where an Afghan soldier opened fire on US troops, killing two Americans.
“There will be moments like this when you’re searching for the meaning of this loss. There will be moments like this when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back,’’ Allen said in comments NATO released yesterday.
“Now is not the time for revenge. Now is not the time for vengeance. Now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are.’’
Allen, who was accompanied by Afghan National Army General Sher Mohammed Karimi, told soldiers that “now is how we show the Afghan people that as bad as that act was in Bagram, it was unintentional and American and ISAF soldiers do not stand for this.’’ He was referring to the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the US-led international military coalition fighting in Afghanistan.
The two US troops were killed during a protest Thursday outside the US base in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar Province.
Two protesters were killed by Afghan police there before the Afghan soldier fired on US troops, then fled into the crowd.
Karimi told the US troops that their sacrifice is not wasted.
“It is a rewarding mission and this enemy fighting against us is not an enemy of Afghanistan, it is an enemy of the whole of humanity,’’ Karimi said.
It was the latest in a rising spate of incidents where Afghan soldiers or police, or militants wearing their uniforms, have shot and killed US and NATO service members.
The unrest started Tuesday, when Afghan workers at the sprawling Bagram air base noticed that Korans and other Islamic texts were in the trash that coalition troops dumped into a pit where garbage is burned.