About 1,000 Afghanis shouting "Death to Pakistan" demonstrated in front of the Pakistan embassy in Kabul yesterday to protest recent border violence.
Many of the demonstrators were from the eastern province of Paktia, where fighting between Afghan and Pakistani troops on Sunday and Monday killed at least 13 Afghan border guards and civilians -- the most serious skirmishes in years between the neighboring countries.
The demonstrators carried banners and shouted "Death to the ISI! Death to Musharraf," a reference to Pakistan's intelligence agency and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
Afghan police wearing riot gear guarded the embassy in a downtown street. There were no reports of violence, but emotions ran high.
"We've run out of patience with Pakistan," said Sultan Uddin, 50, from Jaji District in Paktia. "We're requesting [Afghani] President [Hamid] Karzai to give us weapons and remove the border police. We know how to deal with Pakistan.''
Tensions have been running high between Afghanistan and Pakistan over controlling their 2,430km border and stemming the flow of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who stage attacks inside Afghanistan.
Afghan officials said this week's border clashes began when Pakistani soldiers entered Afghan territory. Pakistan said Afghan soldiers sparked the clashes by firing on border posts.
On Monday, one US soldier and a Pakistani soldier were killed by unidentified militants after a meeting in a Pakistani border region between officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The meeting was meant to cool tensions over the border fighting.
Elsewhere, militants attacked US-led coalition forces and Afghan border police in southern Afghanistan, killing one coalition soldier, officials said yesterday. The soldier's nationality was not released.
The combined patrol was returning from providing medical assistance to more than 600 Afghanis in Kandahar Province when it was attacked on Tuesday about 40km southwest of Qalat in Zabul Province, a coalition statement said.
The death brings the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 50, including at least 25 US soldiers.
In Helmand Province, coalition and Afghan soldiers exchanged gunfire with suspected Taliban militants in Kajaki District. An airstrike destroyed the militants' position, the coalition said. Two fighters were detained.
"A precision strike was conducted when it was obvious the militants were well-armed and had no intentions of surrendering," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher said.
Coalition and Afghan forces also detained what they called a suspected trainer of suicide bombers at a compound in Khost Province late on Tuesday.
Meanwhile in northwestern Pakistan, suspected pro-Taliban militants firing mortars and machine guns attacked a police checkpoint yesterday and at least five civilians were killed in the ensuing gunbattle, officials said.
The clash in Tank also wounded 12 civilians and six police, said Zulifquar Cheema, a regional police chief. Hundreds of residents were reportedly confined to schools and offices fearing injury if they ventured onto the street.
The attack came a day after a suicide bombing killed 25 people at a hotel in the provincial capital of Peshawar.
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