Suicide bomb kills 9 at Nato base

toll from unrest and protests that spread to even usually peaceful parts of the war-ravaged country hit about 40.
Six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in the bomb attack on the military base at Jalalabad airport, but Nato troops escaped unhurt.
The Taliban said it was revenge for the Koran burning.
“The foreign forces have insulted our religion and this attack was revenge,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The hardliners also claimed that an “Afghan cook” working on their behalf poisoned the food of Nato troops at another base in the same province of Nangarhar.
Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched an investigation after “traces of bleach” were found in fruit and coffee, a spokesman said.
“There were no injuries, no fatality. The investigation is ongoing,” said Master Sergeant Nicholas Conner.
On Sunday, seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack during an anti-US demonstration at their base in northern Kunduz province, police said.
On Saturday, two US advisers were shot dead in the interior ministry in Kabul, just days after two US troops died as an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them as thousands of demonstrators approached their base in the east.
The US embassy has been in lockdown since the violence erupted and has warned of a “heightened potential threat to American citizens in Afghanistan”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said  that the deadly protests over the burning of Korans by US soldiers “must stop”.
“We deeply regret the incident that has led to this protest, but we also believe that violence must stop and the hard work for building a more peaceful and secure Afghanistan must continue,” she told a news conference.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai went on television on the same day to appeal for calm.
Karzai condemned “with the strongest words” the treatment of Islam’s holy book and said the perpetrators should be punished, but told his countrymen: “Now that we have shown our feelings it is time to be calm and peaceful.”
He said he respected the emotions of Afghans upset by the Koran burning in an incinerator pit at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul, but urged them not to let “the enemies of Afghanistan misuse their feelings”.
Taliban insurgents have called on Afghans to kill foreign troops in revenge for the Koran incident and claimed to also have been behind the killing of the two US advisers in the interior ministry.
The shooting prompted Nato and several European countries to pull their advisers out of Afghan government ministries, while fallout from the Koran burnings widened as Afghan ministers cancelled a visit to Washington.
The Pentagon on Sunday said that Afghanistan’s defence and interior ministers had cancelled the trip this week to concentrate on addressing security concerns at home.
US President Barack Obama has apologised for the burning of the Korans, which officials said were inadvertently sent to the incinerator.
An Afghan government official said the US advisers killed at the interior ministry had been mocking the anti-US protests in the presence of an Afghan colleague before being shot.
Government sources said police were hunting for an Afghan intelligence official suspected of killing the two Americans. — AFP.