US officers shot dead in Afghan protests over Qur'an burning An Afghan protester is treated at a hospital in Laghman province, after having been shot by police. Photograph: Parwiz/Reuters Two senior US officers were shot dead inside Kabul's heavily fortified interior ministry on Saturday and at least six others died in street protests as another day of violence convulsed Afghanistan following the desecration of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers. In response to the killings, which suggest that foreign troops may be at risk even in the most protected parts of the Afghan capital, the Nato-led coalition pulled all advisers out of ministries across Kabul, giving no date for their return. The move could undermine efforts to train and strengthen Afghan forces ahead of the expected withdrawal of western combat troops by the end of 2014. "For obvious force protection reasons, I have ... taken immediate measures to recall all other Isaf personnel working in ministries in and around Kabul," said the Nato commander, General John Allen. It was not immediately clear who was behind the killings, or if they were linked to days of protests over the burning on Tuesday of copies of the Qur'an, but they added to the tense atmosphere. Men armed with sticks and stones, sometimes carrying guns or the white flag of the insurgent movement, have targeted foreign missions and their own government's offices across eastern, western and northern provinces since Tuesday. The usually more restive southern regions, the Taliban's birthplace and spiritual heartland remain largely calm. The violence had been expected to peak on Friday, the day of prayer, but protests continued yesterday morning and by 9am hundreds had gathered in the once peaceful northern city of Kunduz, heading for a UN compound. The assault stirred up memories of similar riots last year after a US pastor burned a copy of the Qur'an in Florida. Then, angry protesters overran a UN office in another northern city, nearby Mazar-i-Sharif, and killed seven foreign employees. The Afghan security forces were accused of not doing enough to prevent the deaths. In Kunduz yesterday, Afghan forces opened fire and at least five people were killed with more than a dozen injured, the deputy provincial governor, Hamdullah Danashi, said. The UN offered condolences to the families of the dead, but described the use of guns as "legitimate defence" of its staff, and thanked the army and police for holding back the crowd. A protester was shot dead and two others wounded in Logar province, south of Kabul, after hundreds of protesters, many chanting "Death to America," charged at police, according to Reuters. More than 1,000 people also took to the streets of the eastern city of Metherlam, heading for the offices of the provincial governor, the intelligence service and the provincial chief of police. "They attacked them with stones, and security forces resisted for half an hour, but then they opened fire to control them," said Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the provincial police chief. Twenty people were wounded, five very seriously. The violence began on Tuesday, as word spread that foreign troops at Bagram airbase had tried to burn copies of the Qur'an and other religious literature with piles of waste paper. The books and papers had been removed from detainees in Bagram jail because they were used for extremist communication or had extremist content, western officials said. Nato-led forces rushed to apologise for the burning, which they said was an error, but violence erupted within hours; since then more than 30 people have died and dozens more have been wounded. Many were hit when security forces opened fire on demonstrators they feared were getting out of control. Apologies from US president Barack Obama and many other civilian and military leaders, and a call for restraint from Afghan president Hamid Karzai, have done nothing to quell the anger. General Allen has also ordered mandatory training on recognising and appropriately handling religious material for all 130,000 troops serving in the country. But after a decade fighting in Afghanistan, many Afghans struggle to believe foreign forces could do something as offensive and dangerously provocative as burning a Qur'an by mistake. At Friday prayers, preachers questioned the motives of foreign forces, although fears they would heighten anger and unleash violence across the country were borne out only in a handful of places. "First the Americans shook our hands as friends and helpers, but then they invited our young people to become Christians, and now they have burned our holy Qur'an," said Sheikh Zada Amad Ali Khan, in a sermon at Kabul's Hossania Qalay Fatullah mosque. Americans are the enemy of our holy Qur'an and holy religion. In some remoter regions the delayed demonstrations were the result in part to the time it took for news to filter through to areas with little access to electricity, much less the internet.