Two US advisors serving with NATO were reported killed after gunshots were reported in the Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul on Saturday.

While the reasons for the shooting were not clear initially, there were accounts that it was a result of a scuffle after a "verbal clash." The ministry was sealed shut with no one allowed in or out, security sources said.

"Initial reports indicate an individual turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in Kabul City today, killing two service members," NATO said in a statement.

The shootings took place as hundreds took part in anti-US protests on Saturday, in a wave of anger over the burning of Muslim holy texts that has already taken 24 lives.

Four Afghans were shot dead by Afghan security forces, with an attempt by demonstrators to bombard a UN compound in the north.

Protesters in the northeastern Laghman province threw rocks at police and tried to attack the home of the provincial governor. In Logar, the AFP news agency reported a police source as saying that some 200 people, mostly university students, had taken to the streets voicing anger at the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"They have closed the Kabul-Logar highway and are chanting 'Death to America' and 'Death to Karzai,'" the source was reported as saying.

Apology fails to dampen rage

Two American soldiers were killed in riots when an Afghan soldier turned his gun on them. The continued demonstrations come despite apologies by US President Barack Obama over the burning of the holy book.

Afghan officials reported that seven people had been killed on Friday by Afghan security personnel trying to disperse crowds, bringing the total number of deaths to at least 24.

Unrest began on Tuesday, when Afghan workers at the US Bagram air base found copies of the Koran and other Islamic texts in a pit where rubbish is burned.

US officials said detainees at the prison had been using the texts to exchange messages, but that the materials had been mishandled.

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said on Saturday that six Afghan soldiers had been killed and 16 others wounded while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.

rc/ccp (AP, Reuters, AFP)