A Taliban suicide car bomber targeting NATO troops at an airport in eastern Afghanistan killed nine people on Monday, on a seventh day of violence over the burning of the holy Quran at a US airbase.
The insurgents also said they were behind an attempt to poison foreign troops, as the death toll from unrest and protests that spread to even usually peaceful parts of the war-ravaged country hit about 40. Six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in the bomb attack on the military base at Jalalabad airport, but NATO troops escaped unhurt.
The Taliban said it was revenge for the holy Quran burning. “The foreign forces have insulted our religion and this attack was revenge,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The hardliners also claimed that an “Afghan cook” working on their behalf poisoned the food of NATO troops at another base in the same province of Nangarhar. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched an investigation after “traces of bleach” were found in fruit and coffee, a spokesman said.
“There were no injuries, no fatality. The investigation is ongoing,” said Master Sergeant Nicholas Conner.
On Sunday, seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack during an anti-US demonstration at their base in northern Kunduz province, police said.
On Saturday, two US advisers were shot dead in the Interior Ministry in Kabul, just days after two US troops died as an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them as thousands of demonstrators approached their base in the east.
The US embassy has been in lockdown since the violence erupted and has warned of a “heightened potential threat to American citizens in Afghanistan”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the deadly protests over the burning of Holy Quran by US soldiers “must stop”. “We deeply regret the incident that has led to this protest, but we also believe that violence must stop and the hard work for building a more peaceful and secure Afghanistan must continue,” she told a news conference.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai went on television on the same day to appeal for calm. He said he respected the emotions of Afghans upset by the Quran burning in an incinerator pit at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul, but urged them not to let “the enemies of Afghanistan misuse their feelings”. Taliban insurgents have called on Afghans to kill foreign troops in revenge for the incident and claimed to also have been behind the killing of the two US advisers in the Interior Ministry.
The shooting prompted NATO and several European countries to pull their advisers out of Afghan government ministries, while fallout from the Quran burnings widened as Afghan ministers cancelled a visit to Washington. The Pentagon said Sunday that Afghanistan’s defence and interior ministers had cancelled the trip this week to concentrate on addressing security concerns at home. US President Barack Obama has apologised for the burning of the holy Quran, which officials said were inadvertently sent to the incinerator.
An Afghan government official said the US advisers killed at the Interior Ministry had been mocking the anti-US protests in the presence of an Afghan colleague before being shot. Government sources said police were hunting for an Afghan intelligence official suspected of killing the two Americans.