Afhan soldier opens fire, kills 2 U.S. troops

Afghan demonstrators destroy a U.S. flag during a protest against Quran desecration in Helmand province, Feb. 23, 2012. / Getty

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 Khogyani district of 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.

There have been violent anti-U.S. protests across Afghanistan since the American military on Tuesday 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.

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There had been reports of violent protests again on Thursday at U.S. and NATO military bases around Afghanistan, including one protest at which two protesters were apparently shot and killed by responding police.

[StephJoe1]

This story hits home hard. I am so sorry for the ones who lostheir lives and their families. My brother was killed(murdered by a supposed Afghan allie) recently on February 1st over there . When will they see we need to pull our troop out because those people do not want help or whatever the mission is supposed to be over there. I am sickened that they are keeping them there after all the violence and deaths of our men and women.

[indubio]

Let me get this strait...US personnel accidentally destroy a couple of Qurans thinking they were terrorist literature, in typical lunatic Islamic fashion mobs go crazy and kill 9 of their own, then an Afghan soldier kills two of his purported American comrades in arms...and Obama apologizes to Karzi? ***? Obama should have given Karzi our six months notice.

[trekie70]

It is very unfortunate that Korans were burned-I can only imagine the outrage from those dismissing it as a tragedy if Bibles had been burned instead of Korans.

[rrc946]

Obama is useless and the worst president in the history of the US.

[NeoCon_ChickenHawk]

Agreed!

[Toostie]

Wrong!

[rrc946]

Islam is a blight on humanity.

[trekie70]

I'd say Evangelical Christians are just as bad, if not worse.

[NeoCon_ChickenHawk]

@trekie, Really? I've never heard of an Evangelical cutting off someone's head. Or stoning a woman for showing her hair. Or blaming a victim of rape, for the rape. Nope, there is no logical comparison.

[mizRicki]

These people have no respect for life, they burn any book that doesn't conform to their warped ideology, kill, kidnap and torture our own, by the way, why hasn't Obama called for the release of the soldier still beling held captive?, they maime, rape and enslave women and children, stone, burn and dismember anyone that doesn't hold their 4th century belief system. Let the brave men and women do their jobs and root out the Taliban and Karzai instead of appeasing them. My prayers go to these families.

[betterusa]

Why don't the majority of AMERICAN voters make a statement! Tell all the presidential candidates that if you want our vote you must declare, without hesitation, that you will get our soldiers out of this rat hole (Afghanistan). Somehow I thought we were told that in 2008 but all we saw were more troops sent over. Time to get out of this worthless country! I agree completely with LetMeExplain, what is it with our politicians wanting to be there? Must be money in somebody's greedy pockets at the price of our blood!

[ship5]

You will do all kinds of crazy crap when you worship a book and a dead paedophile.

[rrc946]

Agreed

[AJW87]

What is strange is I'v read with old or damaged copies of the Qur'an they are burned, or buried.
Bring the troops home and no one would have to worry about this kind of thing happing again.
Ron Paul 2012

[DCCorruption]

I think we need to get out of Afghanistan. Those people are idiots who wish to live in the 1600's. All religions are made up of control freaks who wish to push their narrow minded ways upon others. If we did away with religion, this world would be a much more peaceful place or at least the idiots of the world would have to think of something else to fight over.

[Resin-Smoker]

Agreed

[ship5]

"If we did away with religion, this world would be a much more peaceful place"

To accomplish that you would need to establish a more brutal government than anything they have in the middle east.

We're in Afghanistan because they harbor an environment that people like Bin Laden can launch an attack like he did on 9/11. Our problem is being unfocused on why we are there.