A protest in western Afghanistan against an American sniper who shot at a copy of the Quran in Iraq turned violent Thursday, leaving one NATO soldier and two civilians dead.
NATO spokesman Maj. Martin O'Donnell said demonstrators were protesting near a military airfield in western Ghor province and began to throw rocks and set tents on fire.
Police opened fire on demonstrators when the protest became violent, killing two civilians and wounding seven others, he said.
Gunfire killed one NATO soldier and wounded another, but it was not clear who shot at them, O'Donnell said.
"We don't know if it was one of the protesters, an insurgent among the protesters or an insurgent sniper outside the protest. We have no indication that it was the Afghan National Police," O'Donnell told The Associated Press.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry identified the dead soldier as Sgt. Arunas Jarmalavicius, 35.
He is the first Lithuanian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Ghor provincial police chief Shah Jahan Noori said about 1,000 demonstrators had gathered to protest the Quran shooting in Iraq.
"Among these people were rebels, who opened fire," Noori said, adding that 10 policemen were also wounded.
Provincial council member Ahmad Khan Rahimi was among the protesters and estimated the crowd at 2,000 people. He said they chanted "Death to America" and "America is against Islam."
The U.S. military said Sunday it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used Islam's holy book for target practice May 9.
U.S. President George W. Bush apologized to Iraq's prime minister for the incident in the latest of a string of statements by U.S. officials trying to soothe anger over the shooting of Islam's holy book.
Similar perceived insults against Islam have sparked violent protests around the world.
At least 11 Afghans were killed in 2006 during protests over the contentious Prophet Muhammad cartoons published in Denmark.
Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where blasphemy of Muhammad and the Quran is considered a serious crime that carries the death sentence.
In other violence:
_ In the southern city of Kandahar, a remote control bomb on a bicycle exploded as an Afghan army convoy was passing on Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding another, said police officer Wali Mohammad.
_ In eastern Paktika province, a suicide car bomber hit a NATO convoy Wednesday, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding four troops, said NATO spokesman O'Donnell.
_ Also in Paktika, two separate roadside bomb attacks targeting NATO convoys on Wednesday and Thursday left six troops wounded, O'Donnell said.
_ In eastern Kunar province, insurgents fired heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at two separate NATO bases on Wednesday, killing a child and wounding three others, the alliance said in a statement.
_ In western Nimroz province, a roadside bomb hit a road construction company Thursday morning, wounding an Indian engineer, said Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad.
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Associated Press writer Amir Shah contributed to this report.
