Afghan policeman kills U.S. soldiers

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan policeman shot and killed two U.S. soldiers on Monday in northern Afghanistan, the province’s deputy governor said, and protests flared for a fourth straight day in several Afghan cities and towns over an American pastor’s burning of the Quran.

The slain Americans were military trainers working in Faryab province, a once-calm area where insurgents have gained a greater foothold over the last year. The episode, the latest in which a member of the Afghan security forces has turned a weapon on Western mentors, pointed up the daunting obstacles to transforming the Afghan police and army into a loyal and professional fighting force.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said it was investigating the deaths of the two service members, but gave no other details. Deputy Gov. Abdul Sattar Bariz said the shooter, a member of the Border Police, opened fire on the Americans during a meeting with Afghan counterparts in the provincial capital, Maimana.

The assailant fled the scene, Bariz said.

A string of similar incidents prompted Afghan authorities and NATO to tighten vetting procedures for police and army recruits, but the Afghan forces remain vulnerable to infiltration by insurgents or sympathizers.

Meanwhile, the ongoing furor over a Florida evangelical church’s Quran-burning last month again sent demonstrators surging into the streets in several locales, although the protests appeared to be tapering off in both size and ferocity.

For the first day since lethal riots erupted on Friday, resulting in the deaths of seven foreign U.N. workers in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, no fatalities were reported Monday in the protests.