Eight US soldiers wounded in Afghan NATO base attack

The Taliban has claimed it was behind the killing of two American military officials in a secure area of the Afghanistan Interior Ministry, prompting the U.S. to remove personnel from the ministry until it can be determined if the claim is true. Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News

U.S. military officials?say?eight?American soldiers were wounded?Sunday during a violent protest outside a U.S. forward operating base in Afghanistan's Kunduz province. The Americans were wounded when one of the protesters apparently hurled a grenade into the compound. The extent of the injuries was unclear.

The attack occurred as 400 demonstrators stormed the American outpost to protest the?inadvertent burning of?Qurans at the U.S. Bagram airbase north of Kabul. More than two dozen people, including?four U.S. troops, have been killed since Tuesday, after?the Qurans and religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage. ?President Barack Obama and?U.S. officials have apologized and said it was a?mistake, but the incident has sent thousands of protesters into the streets.

One senior?U.S. military official said?the results of the U.S.-Afghan investigation into the incident are still "days away."

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Meanwhile an intensive manhunt continues for the lone gunman who shot and kiled two American officers as they sat at their desks in the Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul Sunday. U.S. military officials describe the primary suspect as a "low-level" Afghan servicemember or government employee who fled the scene. But Afghan sources tell the NBC Kabul bureau the suspect may be a high-ranking Afghan intelligence official who has been reported missing ever since the shooting.

Read: Afghan intelligence officer sought in connection with US slayings

The order by General John Allen, the top U.S. militiary commander in Afghanistan, to withdraw all American and NATO forces from Afghan ministries remains in effect. A senior U.S. military official tells NBC News, "we're still working with the Afghan goverment" by telephone and emails, but until the circumstances surrounding Sunday's shooting are more clear U.S. and NATO personnel will continue to work from the ISAF base in Kabul.

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Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/26/10510299-eight-us-soldiers-wounded-in-afghan-nato-base-attack

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