SHOUTING “Death to America”, demonstrators angry over the alleged desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay smashed car and shop windows and stoned a passing convoy of US soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.

Four people were killed and at least 71 injured when police opened fire on hundreds of student protestors as they rampaged through an Afghan city.

A US soldier and four Afghan police officers were killed in separate rebel attacks, while at least two Afghan civilians were injured by gunfire following the bombing of an American patrol in the east of the country, American and Afghan officials said today.

A US military helicopter crashed in bad weather in south-east Afghanistan today, killing nine people, including four American crew members.

A land mine exploded under a US vehicle south of the Afghan capital of Kabul today, killing four soldiers in the deadliest incident for American troops there in almost 10 months, the military said.