Deadly "insider attacks" in Afghanistan

(Anti-US Protests Linger After Deadly Weekend of "Insider Attacks" in Afghanistan)
(CBS/AP) - 

KABUL

There were violence protests at a U.S. military outpost near the Afghan capital Monday after a weekend of bloodshed that left at least six American troops dead - four of them in the latest apparent "insider attack" by Afghan defense forces.

Kabul police chief Lt. Gen. Ayoub Salangi tells CBS News that about 1,000 demonstrators gathered in front of Camp Phoenix, a U.S. base on the outskirts of Kabul. 

The crowd, the latest rallying against an anti-Islamic movie apparently produced inside the U.S., chanted anti-U.S. slogans and began throwing stones at the U.S. base.

The air was thick with smoke on the Jalalabad road - a main thoroughfare into the city center where the crowd burned shipping containers and tires. Sirens wailed as fire engines rushed to the scene. At least one police vehicle was burned by the mob, according Daoud Amin, the Kabul provincial police chief.

Salangi says shots were fired by some members of the protest group, but that nobody was known to have been wounded by the gunfire. The police never opened fire, he says. Salangi says about 40 police officers received minor injuries in the stone throwing before the crowd dispersed.

Shor Bazaar

The scuffles in the Afghan capital came after a bloody weekend that saw a renewal of the so-called "insider attacks" on Western forces by their Afghan partners, and an apparently misguided NATO airstrike on an alleged militant target which left at least eight Afghan women and girls dead.

The bloodshed started Friday, when 15 insurgents disguised in U.S. Army uniforms killed two Marines, wounded nine other people and destroyed six Harrier fighter jets at Camp Bastion, a major coalition base in the southern Helmand province, military officials said.

Four American and two British troops were then killed in two separate insider attacks. On Saturday, a gunman in the uniform of a government-backed militia force shot dead two British soldiers in Helmand district in the southwest.

On Sunday, an Afghan police officer turned his gun on NATO troops at a remote checkpoint in the southern province of Zabul, killing four American service members, according to Afghan and international officials.

Village

This year has seen a sharp rise in insider attacks in Afghanistan. A total of 36 incidents have left 51 coalition troops dead, including 32 Americans. Friday's attack on Camp Bastion is not counted in this tally, as there is no indication the insurgents who were dressed in U.S. uniforms had help from Afghan security personnel at the sprawling base.