Afghan rage over Koran burning

Guards at the Bagram airbase north of the capital, Kabul, fired rubber bullets as crowds shouted "Die, die foreigners" and "Allahu akbar," or "God is the greatest."

"The protest is ongoing right now in front of Bagram airport gate and nearly 3,000 people are protesting right now," Roshana Khalid, a spokeswoman for Parwan provincial government, told German news agency dpa.

"The Afghan labourers at the Bagram military airbase brought copies of Koran burnt by the coalition troops out of the base this morning."

Hundreds of others protested in Kabul as security forces were dispatched to try prevent the rallies from spreading across the conservative Islamic country.

Similar protests have in the past turned violent in Afghanistan, an extremely devout Muslim nation where an insult to Islam is punishable by death.

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologized for the incident and said he had ordered an investigation into the reports of the improper disposal of "a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans."

"I offer my sincere apologies for any offence this may have caused, to the president of Afghanistan, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan," he said.

Allen's statement was replayed repeatedly on Afghan television after a senior Afghan official made the allegations that NATO soldiers at Bagram had set fire to copies of the Muslim holy book.

"When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities," he continued.

"We are thoroughly investigating the incident and we are taking steps to ensure this does not ever happen again. I assure you, I promise you, this was not intentional in any way."

dfm/jw (AP, dpa)