Obama apologises for Koran burning at US airbase

US President Barack Obama has apologised over the burning of Korans at a US airbase in Afghanistan, where three days of protests have killed 14 people.

Violent anti-US protests have seen furious Afghans attack French, Norwegian and US bases, shouting “death to America” after the Taliban exhorted their countrymen to kill foreign troops to avenge the incident at a US-run base.

Slights against Islam have frequently provoked violent protests in the country, and Afghans are incensed at the discovery of charred Korans at the US-run Bagram airbase north of Kabul.

In a letter of apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama expressed “deep regret” over the incident that he said was unintentional and pledged that those responsible would be held accountable. “I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies,” Obama wrote in the letter presented to Karzai by US ambassador Ryan Crocker.

“The error was inadvertent; I assure you we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”

Karzai said a US officer was responsible “out of ignorance” for the Koran burning at Bagram and the US government had admitted the mistake.

Two US soldiers were shot dead when an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them at their base in Khogyani in eastern Nangarhar province, district governor Mohammad Hassan said.

“As the protesters approached the American base here an ANA (Afghan) soldier in the base opened fire on American soldiers, killing two soldiers,” he said.

Nato’s US-led International Security Assistance Force said two of its service members were killed in the east by “an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform” who turned his weapon against the troops.

The force did not identify the nationalities of the victims.

One Norwegian soldier was lightly injured when a hand grenade was thrown into a Nato camp in Maimana, capital of northern Faryab province, during a demonstration.

At least three Afghans were also killed by gunfire at demonstrations in the south and east, bringing the total death toll among protesters to 12.

The violence came after the Taliban urged Afghans to kill foreign troops to avenge the Koran burning, although the insurgents stopped short of cutting off tentative peace contacts with US officials in Qatar.

In Mihtarlam, the capital of Laghman province east of Kabul, thousands besieged the base of a US-led military-civilian provincial reconstruction team (PRT), throwing rocks and climbing up the outer walls, police said.

“People had come from all over Laghman. They attacked the PRT, they climbed up the walls, they set fire to something there, I think a container,” police official Khalilul Rahman Niazi told AFP.

Afghanistan wants Nato to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Koran, President Karzai's office said. It said Nato had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed.