Lithuanian NATO Soldier Killed at Koran Protest in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunfire broke out yesterday at a protest in western Afghanistan against an American sniper in Iraq who used a Koran for target practice. Officials said a NATO soldier and two civilians were killed.

Police opened fire on demonstrators who threw rocks and set tents on fire near a military airfield in western Ghor province, a NATO spokesman, Major Martin O'Donnell, said.

Two civilians were slain and seven others were wounded, he said.

Gunfire also killed one NATO soldier from Lithuania and wounded another, but it was not clear who shot at them, Major O'Donnell said. The Lithuanian Defense Ministry identified the dead soldier as Sergeant Arunas Jarmalavicius, 35, the first Lithuanian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

"We don't know if it was one of the protesters, an insurgent among the protesters, or an insurgent sniper outside the protest. We have no indication that it was the Afghan National Police," Major O'Donnell told the Associated Press.

Ghor's provincial police chief, Shah Jahan Noori, said about 1,000 demonstrators had gathered to protest the Koran shooting.

"Among these people were rebels who opened fire," Mr. Noori said, adding that 10 policemen were also wounded.

A provincial council member, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was among the protesters and estimated the crowd at 2,000 people.

He said they chanted "Death to America!" and "America is against Islam!"

"We condemn the act of the soldier in Iraq against our holy book," Mr. Rahimi quoted the demonstrators as saying.

The American military said Sunday it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used the Koran for target practice May 9.

President Bush apologized to Iraq's prime minister for the incident after several American military officials tried to soothe anger over the shooting of Islam's holy book.

There has been relatively little protest in Muslim countries since the incident, but similar perceived insults against Islam have sparked violent protests around the world.

At least 11 Afghans were killed in 2006 during protests over the contentious Prophet Mohammed cartoons published in Denmark.

Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where blasphemy of Mohammed and the Koran is considered a serious crime that carries the death sentence.

Elsewhere, in the southern city of Kandahar, a remote control bomb on a bicycle exploded as an Afghan army convoy was passing yesterday, killing one soldier and wounding another, a police officer, Wali Mohammed, said.

In eastern Paktika province, a suicide car bomber hit a NATO convoy Wednesday, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding four troops Major O'Donnell said.