Updated at 5:45 a.m. ET: MOSCOW --  Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's president at a glittering ceremony on Monday, hours after clashes between police and thousands of protesters in the country's capital laid bare the deep divisions over his return to the Kremlin for six more years. 

In the latest demonstrations on Sunday, police detained more than 400 people, including three opposition leaders, after tensions boiled over at a rally attended by about 20,000 people across the Moscow river from the Kremlin. 

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Police hit protesters on the head with batons as they tried to stop demonstrators advancing towards them, carrying metal crowd barriers and throwing objects. The crowd fought back with flagpoles before the police eventually restored order.

"Putin has shown his true face, how he 'loves' his people -- with police force," said Dmitry Gorbunov, 35, a computer analyst who took part in the protest. 

NYT: Russia's Medvedev reveals 'very bad moods'

Months of protests have polarized Russia and left Putin facing a battle to reassert himself or risk being sidelined by the powerful business and political elites whose backing is vital. 

Lavish reception
Putin, a former KGB spy, took his oath before nearly 2,000 guests in the Kremlin's St Andrew Hall, the former throne room with sparkling chandeliers, gilded pillars and high Gothic vaults, before being blessed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and taking charge of the nuclear suitcase. 

"We will achieve our goals if we are a single, united people, if we hold our fatherland dear, strengthen Russian democracy, constitutional rights and freedoms," Putin said in a five-minute speech after taking the oath. "I will do all I can to justify the faith of millions of our citizens. I consider it to be the meaning of my whole life and my obligation to serve my fatherland and our people." 

He was also due to host a lavish reception featuring only Russian food and drink. 

US complains to Russia over harassment of ambassador

Although he has remained Russia's supreme leader for the past four years as prime minister, Putin will take back the formal reins of power he ceded to his ally Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 after eight years as president. 

On Sunday, several thousand people staged a rally supporting Putin, seen by his backers as the only leader capable of defending Russia's interests on the world stage and the guardian of the economy at home. 

While Putin's critics have tired of a political system that concentrates power in one man, many of his supporters welcome his domination of the country of more than 140 million. 

"Democracy is the power of the majority. Russia is everything, the rest is nothing!" Alexander Dugin, a Kremlin-aligned nationalist, told the pro-Putin crowd. 

Rifts
The rival rallies Sunday underlined the rifts opened by Putin's return to the Kremlin and protests that were sparked by allegations of electoral fraud but fuelled by many Russians' frustration that one man continues to dominate the country. 

The BBC reported that prominent opposition figures Alexei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov and Boris Nemtsov were among the people detained Sunday. 

From the archives: Anti-Putin activists pay high price, but refuse to back down

Although the protests had lost momentum before Sunday's rally, they have given birth to a civil society, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that is gradually chipping away at Putin's authority. 

Putin, who will be 60 in October, grew up in Soviet days and worked as a spy in communist East Germany, is under pressure to show he can adapt to the new political landscape. Few think he has changed much -- if at all. 

Russia threatens preemptive strike over planned US missile shield

Putin has eased up on the choreographed macho antics that burnished his image at his peak in Russia, such as riding horseback bare-chested and shooting a tiger with a tranquiliser gun. 

Harder to shake off will be his habit of seeking total control and learning to cope with political opponents and a middle class demanding more political freedom. 

US ambassador vents on Twitter about Russian media

He has to quell rivalries between liberals and conservatives battling for positions in the new cabinet under Medvedev, who is swapping jobs with Putin. The outcome of the struggle could help determine how far reforms go to improve the investment climate. 

The $1.9 trillion economy is in better shape than in most European countries but is vulnerable to any change in the price of oil, Russia's main export commodity. The budget is under pressure from Putin's lavish election spending promises. 

Putin has said he wants to attract more foreign investment by improving the business climate, reduce corruption and red tape, and end Russia's heavy dependence on energy exports. He has not spelled out how he will do this. 

Putin is likely, as in the past, to use tough anti-Western rhetoric on foreign policy to drum up support if times get tough in Russia. But he has never yielded his strong influence over foreign policy as premier, so a major policy shift is unlikely.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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At least one anti-government protester was shot dead, Reuters reported, after Syrians poured into the streets Friday in the first major test of a fragile United Nations-brokered truce.

Opposition leaders called for widespread demonstrations. The Associated Press, citing activists, said thousands of people were responding to those calls.

Syrian forces tightened security in public squares and outside mosques Friday. President Bashar Assad's regime has cracked down on such rallies in the past and has suggested it would not allow them to resume, insisting protesters need to seek permission first.

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McCain, Lieberman demand Syrian rebels be armed

An outbreak of violence at a chaotic rally could give government forces a pretext for ending the truce, which formally took effect the day before.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that sources in the city of Hama said one person was shot dead by security forces as people tried to converge on a central square.

Syria truce claim is 'blatant lie', says France

However, an activist with the anti-Assad Local Coordination Committees said put the death toll at two. It was unclear if they were reporting the same or different incidents.

Activists said security forces had fired in the air to scatter protesters in at least one area in the restive Idlib province, The Associated Press said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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ATHENS -- An elderly Greek's suicide outside parliament has quickly become a symbol of the pain of austerity and has been seized upon by opponents of the budget cuts imposed by Greece's international lenders.

Dimitris Christoulas, 77, shot himself in the head on Wednesday after declaring that financial troubles pushed him over the edge. A suicide note said the retired pharmacist preferred to die than scavenge for food.

The highly public -- and symbolic -- nature of the suicide prompted an outpouring of sympathy from ordinary Greeks, who held a protest march and set up an impromptu shrine with notes condemning the crisis at the spot where he killed himself.

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The BBC reported that violence flared at the demonstration on Wednesday night, with some protesters hurling Molotov cocktails at police. They responded by firing tear gas.

"As you walk around the streets of Athens and beyond you can see the social fabric tearing," the BBC's Mark Lowen said.

The conservative newspaper Eleftheros Typos called the victim a "martyr for Greece" and said his act was filled with "profound political symbolism" that could "shock Greek society and the political world and awaken their conscience" in the weeks before a parliamentary election that will determine Greece's future.

'Family man'
Anger was directed as much at politicians as it was at the austerity medicine prescribed by foreign lenders in return for aid to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis since the Second World War.

"It's horrible. We shouldn't have reached this point. The politicians in parliament who brought us here should be punished for this," said Anastassia Karanika, a 60-year-old retiree.

The head of the Attica Pharmacists' Union, Constantinos Lourantos reportedly told Skai radio that Christoulas was "a calm, family man."

With the tragedy occurring barely a month before elections are expected in Greece, smaller parties opposed to harsh spending cuts included in the country's second bailout were quick to point the finger at bigger parties backing the rescue.

"Those who should have committed suicide -- who should have committed suicide a long time ago -- are the politicians who knowingly decided to bring this country and its people to this state of affairs," said Panos Kammenos, a conservative lawmaker who recently set up the Independent Greeks anti-austerity party.

Smaller parties like the Independent Greeks have been riding high in opinion polls at the expense of the two main co-ruling parties, the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, backing the bailout.

The two big parties are together expected to take less than 40 percent of the vote. Losing more voters to the smaller parties could put them at risk of not having enough seats in parliament to forge a pro-bailout coalition again.

That in turn would have profound implications for Greece's finances, given continued aid from European partners and the International Montary Fund is contingent on Greece's new government pushing through reforms demanded as part of the bailout.

Sorrow
New Democracy and PASOK, which have ruled Greece for decades, expressed their sorrow for the tragedy. Political opponents attacked them for joining in the mourning.

"Shame on them. The accomplices responsible for the suffering and despair of the Greek people ... should at least keep quiet in the face of the hideous results of the capitalist crisis and their policies, instead of pretending to be saviors and sensitive," the KKE Communist party said.

Resentment is growing in Greece over repeated rounds of wage and pension cuts that have compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.

Unemployment has surged to a record 21 percent -- twice the eurozone average -- with one out of two young people without a job. The number of suicides has surged and many Greeks feel ordinary people like the retired pharmacist are being forced to pay for a crisis that was not of their making.

Economy-related suicides hit Italy
Meanwhile, an Italian man shot himself dead on Wednesday because his company was going bust, following a wave of economy-related suicides in the country which one opposition politician blamed on Prime Minister Mario Monti's reforms.

The 59-year-old Rome-based construction firm owner left a note apologizing to family members and explaining that his business had failed, police said.

A day earlier, a 78-year-old woman in Sicily jumped to her death because her monthly pension payments had been reduced. On Monday, a picture-frame maker hanged himself because of economic difficulties.

And last week, two men set themselves on fire in northern Italy due to financial woes. Both survived, one with severe burns.

Opposition politician Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the Italy of Values (IDV) party, criticized the government's reform agenda in parliament, and said Monti had the suicides of people who can't make it to the end of the month "on his conscience".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Monti refused to reply to the comments from Di Pietro, a fiery former anti-corruption magistrate, who was one of the harshest critics of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy is struggling with a recession, rising unemployment and increasingly severe austerity measures.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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 WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday said he viewed the killing of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly by a U.S. soldier, as seriously as if those killed had been Americans.

"The U.S. takes this as seriously as if it were our own citizens and our own children who were murdered," Obama said at the White House.

Obama said he was directing the Pentagon to do a very thorough investigation of the weekend killings. He said the inquiry would "follow the facts" wherever they lead, and that anyone found responsible would be prosecuted fully. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty is possible if the soldier is convicted.

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Obama's message was aimed at Afghans and at Americans for whom the killings were a reminder that tens of thousands of U.S. forces are fighting in Afghanistan more than 10 years after the war began.

Obama insisted that the killings will not change U.S. commitment to finishing the job in Afghanistan, but he was clearly trying to reassure Americans that he will close out the war.

"Make no mistake, we have a strategy that will allow us to responsibly wind down this war," Obama said.

"We're steadily transitioning to the Afghans who are moving into the lead. And that's going to allow us to bring our troops home."

He repeated the timetable for bringing forces home that he had already laid out: 23,000 troops by the end of this summer, on top of 10,000 removed last year. He did not give a schedule for withdrawal of the approximately 68,000 U.S. forces that will remain in Afghanistan at the end of this year.

The U.S. and NATO allies agreed more than a year ago to leave forces in Afghanistan through 2014. There is political pressure in Europe, and increasingly in the United States, to speed up that deadline.

"There's no question that we face a difficult challenge in Afghanistan, but I am confident that we can continue the work of meeting our objectives, protecting our country and responsibly bringing this war to a close," Obama said.

Earlier Tuesday thousands of people took to the streets in eastern Afghanistan to protest the killings, burning an effigy of Obama and calling for the killer to be tried in Afghanistan.

Demonstrators in the city of Jalalabad chanted "Death to America -- Death to Obama" and blocked the main highway to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.

"Jihad (holy war) is the only way to get the invading Americans out of Afghanistan," one banner read, according to the newspaper.

The demonstrators also demanded that President Hamid Karzai reject plans to sign a strategic pact with Washington that would allow U.S. advisers and possibly special forces to remain beyond a 2014 deadline for foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, militants attacked an Afghan government delegation that was visiting the site of the killings, the BBC reported.

"I can confirm that the Taliban have launched an attack from several directions against a government delegation," a senior official told the BBC. "At this stage, our forces are returning fire.''

Nine children and three women were among those killed in the massacre. According to reports, a 38-year-old staff sergeant had left his base in Panjwai district early on Sunday and broke into the victim's homes. Some of the bodies were burned.

The soldier had no history of behavioral problems but had been treated for traumatic brain injury after a previous deployment to Iraq, senior U.S. defense officials told NBC News.

U.S. officials rushed to draw a line between the shooting over the weekend and ongoing efforts of a U.S. force of around 90,000, and have been bracing themselves for reprisals as Afghans weary of the decade-old Western military presence vent their anger.

The Afghan Taliban threatened on Tuesday to behead U.S. troops in revenge for the massacre.

Taliban vows 'revenge' after US soldier kills 16 civilans in Afghanistan

"The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahedeen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement, using the term with which the Islamist group describes itself.

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Msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

At least 300 nude cyclists hit the streets of Lima, Peru, on Saturday, protesting the reckless driving they say has killed thousands in their country, Reuters reported.

"I have gone naked because it's the way to raise awareness of our rights for example the bicycle lanes that are never free," said cyclist Milagro Esquivel. "There are always taxis parked, police sleeping."

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More than 3,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in Peru in 2009, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.

(By contrast, 33,808 people were killed in car accidents in the United States during the same year. Adjusting for total populations of both countries, that was about the same proportion of people killed on the road.)

The cyclists, many of whom painted slogans on their bodies, are agitating for dedicated bicycle lanes. This is the seventh annual nude cyclist event.

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Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET: MOSCOW -- Russia's presidential election was clearly skewed in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, international vote monitors said in a report on Monday.

"There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt," Tonino Picula, one of the vote monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, said in a statement.

Monitors cited "serious problems" with the vote and called for alleged electoral violations in Sunday's election to be thoroughly investigated.

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Golos, Russia's leading independent elections watchdog, earlier said it had registered at least 3,100 reports of violations nationwide.

Golos cited received numerous reports of "carousel voting," in which busloads of voters are driven around to cast ballots multiple times.

The Central Elections Commission said Putin got more than 63 percent of the nationwide vote. However, Golos said that incomplete reports from its observers of individual polling station counts indicate Putin hovered perilously close to the 50-percent mark needed for a first-round victory.

Accounts of extensive vote-rigging looked set to strengthen the resolve of opposition forces whose unprecedented protests in recent months have posed the first serious challenge to Putin's heavy-handed rule.

Anti-Putin activists pay high price

Putin said the presidential election had prevented Russia from falling into the hands of enemies. Complaining of widespread fraud, his opponents said they would rally near the Kremlin on Monday night.

His eyes brimming with tears, the former KGB spy defiantly proclaimed to a sea of supporters that they had triumphed over opponents intent on "destroying Russia's statehood and usurping power."

Putin's win was never in doubt as many across the vast country still see him as a guarantor of stability and the defender of a strong Russia against a hostile world, an image he has carefully cultivated during 12 years in power.

'Honest struggle'
Putin claimed victory Sunday night when fewer than a quarter of the votes had been counted. He spoke to a rally just outside the Kremlin walls of tens of thousands of supporters, many of them government workers or employees of state-owned companies who had been ordered to attend.

"I promised that we would win and we have won!" Putin shouted to the flag-waving crowd. "We have won in an open and honest struggle."

He ended his speech with the triumphant declaration: "Glory to Russia!"

Putin was president from 2000 until 2008, before moving into the prime minister's office due to term limits.

Putin, 59, is on collision course with the mainly middle-class protesters who have staged rallies in the capital and other big cities since since December.

Corruption
The wave of protests began after a parliamentary election in which observers produced evidence of widespread vote fraud. Protest rallies in Moscow drew tens of thousands in the largest outburst of public anger in post-Soviet Russia, demonstrating growing exasperation with the pervasive corruption and tight controls over political life under Putin.

The protest organizers, who see Putin as an autocratic leader whose return to power will stymie hope of economic and political reforms, said their demonstrations would now grow.

"He is forcing things to breaking point. He is declaring war on us. As a result the base of aversion to him is growing," said journalist Sergei Parkhomenko, one of the leaders of the opposition protest movement.

"These elections are not free. ... That's why we'll have protests (Monday)," said Mikhail Kasyanov, who was Putin's first prime minister before going into opposition. "We will not recognize the president as legitimate."

Putin's campaign chief, Stanislav Govorukhin, rejected the claims of violations, calling them "ridiculous."

Putin in power until 2024? 10 key questions about the Russian election

Partial results, with nearly 100 percent of the votes counted, put Putin on almost 64 percent of the votes.

His nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, was on about 17 percent of votes, and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov were below 10 percent.

Prokhorov, the owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets, won plaudits for his campaign. He said on Channel One television after the vote that his observers had been kept away from some polling stations and were beaten on two occasions.

Zyuganov said his party would not recognize the result and called the election "illegitimate, dishonest and not transparent".

Despite the opposition, mainly among well-educated and relatively well-off young professionals, Putin's support remains high in the provinces and his victory had not been in doubt.

Putin got more than 90 percent of the vote in several Caucasus provinces, including 99.8 percent in Chechnya.

Television presenter and journalist Tina Kandelaki, a Kremlin supporter who nonetheless found her Unreal Politics discssion programme censored last year, was among a panel appointed by Putin to monitor election fraud.

She told msnbc.com on Monday: "Every complaint will be considered separately and we will do our best to punish law-breakers. All those cases are being checked now. If these complaints are confirmed, we’ll submit cases to the court."

However, she claimed a complaint that 300 buses carrying voters from the province of Dagestan to the central Moscow was examined and "after checking it wasn't confirmed".

Asked about the longer-term implications of Putin's victory, she said: "I'm pretty sure that there would be some political concessions...and the situation with the opposition would change as well." She also believes the process of registration for political parties would be "simplified".

Economic boom
The initial challenge for the man credited by many Russians with rebuilding the country's image and overseeing an economic boom in his first presidency, had been to win more than half the votes on Sunday and avoid a second-round runoff.

His clear victory will enable him to portray his return to the presidency as a strong sign of public support against the protesters, whom he has portrayed as a destabilizing minority and pawns of foreign governments.

But the mood has shifted in the country of 143 million and the urban protest movement portrays him as an obstacle to change and the guardian of a corrupt system of power.

Putin, who will be inaugurated in May, is likely to revert to the fighting talk against the West that was the hallmark of his first presidency and his election campaign.

The West can expect Putin to continue the tough policies he has pursued even as prime minister, including opposing U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Europe and resisting international military intervention in Syria.

"Putin is a brave and persistent man who can resist the U.S. and EU pressure," said Anastasia Lushnikova, a 20-year-old student who voted for Putin in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 8:58 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- Twelve people were killed Friday during protests in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Quran at a NATO base, officials said, despite Thursday's written apology from Barack Obama.

Seven people were killed and 50 wounded in the western province of Herat, while two more were killed in Khost in the east. Three people were killed earlier during protests.

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On Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were shot dead during a protest by a man wearing an Afghan government soldier's uniform, as a letter from Obama apologizing for the Quran burnings was delivered to Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan says the Qurans and other Islamic texts were sent to a burn pit by mistake.

Afghan police in Khost, the provincial capital of Khost province, said Friday that an estimated 4,000 protesters were marching toward the governor's compound.

And in the eastern part of Nangarhar province, thousands of people shouted "Death to America!" and burned a cardboard picture of Obama. There was also a smaller protest in the capital Kabul.

Slideshow: Protests erupt over burning of Qurans

NATO's top military commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. John Allen, who apologized Tuesday when the news broke, said Friday that an investigation into the Quran burnings was pushing ahead and called on Afghans to be patient.

"Working together with the Afghan leadership is the only way for us to correct this major error and ensure that it never happens again," Allen said in a statement.

He called on everyone around Afghanistan "to exercise patience and restraint as we continue to gather the facts."

Afghanistan's Karzai seeks trial of Quran burners

The U.S.-led military coalition says the Muslim holy books were sent by mistake on Feb. 19 to a garbage burn pit at Bagram Air Field, near the capital, and that the case is under investigation. 

Taliban to Afghans: Kill foreigners over Quran burnings

The explanation and multiple apologies from U.S. officials have yet to calm outrage over the incident, which has also heightened tension between international troops and their Afghan partners.

The death toll since Tuesday now stands at 25, including the two U.S. soldiers.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Friday urged leaders of the Afghan Taliban movement to enter direct peace negotiations with Kabul, a possible sign that Islamabad is stepping up support for reconciliation in neighboring Afghanistan.

Both Afghan and U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of using militant groups as proxies in Afghanistan to counter the influence of rival India, allegations Islamabad denies.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said in a statement that Pakistan was "prepared to do whatever it takes" to help the Afghan reconciliation process succeed.

He called on Hizb-i-Islami -- one of Afghanistan's most notorious insurgent factions -- and other militant groups to negotiate peace.

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KABUL -- Afghanistan wants NATO to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Quran at a NATO base, President Hamid Karzai's office said Thursday, after a third day of bloody protests over the incident.

It said NATO had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

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Karzai had earlier accused a U.S. officer of "ignorantly" burning copies of the Quran, in an incident that has deepened anti-Western sentiment in a country NATO is trying to stabilize before foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014.

Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting "Death to America!" amid violence that has killed 11 people including two U.S. service personnel.

"NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators ... promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible," Karzai's office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the burning of the Qurans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish at the sprawling Bagram air base.

Obama apologizes to Afghanistan over Quran burnings

Obama told Karzai the incident was not intentional.

Karzai said an American officer had acted "out of ignorance and with poor understanding" of the Quran's importance, a presidential statement said.

NBC's Afghanistan correspondent answers readers' questions about Quran burning

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders," it said on its site shahamat-english.com.

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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There have been violent protests across Afghanistan since it emerged on Tuesday that copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, used by detainees held at the Bagram military base had been burned. 

The incident has become a public relations disaster for foreign forces in Afghanistan, more than 10 years after the U.S. invasion of the country began.

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On Thursday, President Barack Obama sent a letter to Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai apologizing for the burning of copies of the Quran at a NATO military base, but it is uncertain whether or not that will quell the anger.

NBC News Correspondent in Kabul, Atia Abawi, answered reader questions about the controversy earlier today.

Click on the link below to replay the chat.

Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Barack Obama has written a letter to his Afghan counterpart apologizing for the burning of copies of the Quran at a NATO military base in the country. Two U.S. soldiers were also shot dead Thursday at a protest about the desecration of the holy books.

A man wearing an Afghan government soldier's uniform killed the American troops and wounded four others at the demonstration in Nangarhar province, officials told NBC News.

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There have been violent protests daily since it emerged on Tuesday that Qurans used by detainees held at the Bagram military base had been burned. The incident has become a public relations disaster for foreign forces in Afghanistan.

A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office said the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan had delivered the letter from Obama Thursday.

Taliban to Afghans: Kill foreigners over Quran burnings

In the letter, which is quoted in the statement, the U.S. president expressed his "deep regret for the reported incident" and offered his "sincere apologies."

According to the statement, Obama wrote: "The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told NBC News that Obama had "expressed our regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled at Bagram air base."

The Quran burnings at the vast Bagram base could make it even more difficult for U.S.-led NATO forces to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

Muslims consider the Quran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

NBC's Afghanistan correspondent discusses the Quran controversy

General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), on Tuesday offered his "sincere apologies" for the burnings. "When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them," he added. "This was not intentional in any way." 

The deadly protest in Nangarhar was one of several across the country on Thursday.

According to Haji Mohammad Hassan, the deputy police of Khogayani district in Nangarhar province, American soldiers had starting firing at protesters who were attacking their base.

He said that an Afghan soldier then turned his weapon on the U.S. troops, shooting six, killing two and injuring four.

PhotoBlog: 'Death to America!' Afghan anger over Quran burning intensifies

Hassan said the Afghan soldier escaped by joining the crowd of protesters. However, a provincial official, who asked not to be named, said the shooter had been killed after the attack.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, NBC News reported. 

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a text message that they infiltrated the army with one of their fighters who had shot and killed the Americans. Mujahid claimed that their insurgent killed 10 Americans.

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The Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News' Atia Abawi, Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker contributed to this report.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban urged Afghans Thursday to target foreign military bases and kill Westerners in retaliation for burnings of copies of the Quran at NATO's main base in the country as a third day of violent protests began.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered across the country, some chanting "Death to America!", Reuters witnesses and officials said. In eastern Kabul, hundreds of youths threw rocks at police, who fired shots into the air to try disperse the crowds.

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"Our brave people must target the military bases of invader forces, their military convoys and their invader bases," read an emailed Taliban statement released by the insurgency's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. "They have to kill them (Westerners), beat them and capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Quran again."

Report: 2 NATO troops slain by soldier angry 'over Quran burning'

However, provincial officials and police said Thursday that there were peaceful demonstrations in three eastern provinces to vent anger over the Quran burnings.

More than 2,000 people turned out at the biggest demonstration in the capital of eastern Laghman province, officials and police said.

About 500 people protested in the Khoshi district of Logar province and the rally ended without incident. Hundreds also protested in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

On Wednesday, seven people were killed in clashes between Afghan security forces and protesters demonstrating over the Quran burnings.

'Take up jihad'
Most Westerners were already confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including within the sprawling U.S. Embassy complex and nearby embassies in central Kabul.

The Quran burnings could make it even more difficult for U.S.-led NATO forces to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

Muslims consider the Quran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

PhotoBlog: Protests spread amid Afghan fury at Quran burning

Large protests erupted in eastern Laghman province and the eastern city of Jalalabad, despite an appeal by President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday for calm after officials said six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in demonstrations.

Protests also kicked off in the relatively stable northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar on the border with Tajikistan, as well as nearby Baghlan province

The fury could complicate efforts by U.S. and NATO forces to reach agreement on a strategic pact currently under consideration with the Afghan government that would allow a sharply reduced number of western troops in the country well beyond their combat exit deadline of end-2014.

Underscoring these concerns, hundreds of students in Jalalabad rejected any strategic pact with the United States, saying they would "take up jihad" if one was sealed.

In the Khoshi district of eastern Logar province, around some 500 protesters rejected any strategic deal, while in restive Khost province hundreds more chanted "death to America" and "we don't want Americans in Afghanistan".

Apology
The U.S. government and the American commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan apologized for "unintentional" burnings after Afghan laborers found charred copies of the Koran while collecting rubbish at the huge Bagram Airbase, about an hour's drive north of Kabul.

A report into the incident by NATO investigators and a team of senior Afghan clerics was to be handed to Karzai as soon as Thursday, making clear how the burning happened.

Findings in NATO Quran burning probe due soon

Martine van Bijlert, from the respected Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), said the demonstrations were a combination of religious outrage, pent-up frustration over economic and security conditions, and groups wanting to stir trouble.

"There have been different kinds of outrage. One is the bewilderment felt by many Afghans, and foreigners, that after ten years of efforts in Afghanistan there was apparently still no understanding of how inflammatory mistakes like that are made," van Bijlert said on the AAN website.

"Second, there is the pent-up anger and frustration, with the international military, but also with life in general."

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Updated at 2:40 p.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- Thousands of angry Afghans protested outside a U.S. military base on Tuesday, some hurling rocks and firing guns in the air, after reports surfaced that American troops had burned copies of the Quran and other religious items. 

The demonstrators — shouting "Die, die, foreigners!" — gathered outside Bagram airbase, an hour's drive north of the capital Kabul. Photographs taken by the AFP news agency outside the airbase, showed people firing slingshots and others holding charred copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

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"The people are very angry. The mood is very negative," said Zia Ul Rahman, deputy provincial police chief. "Some are firing hunting guns in the air, but there have been no casualties."

"We Afghans don't want these Christians and infidels, they are the enemy of our soil, our honor and our Quran," said Haji Shirin, one of the protesters.

"I urge all Muslims to sacrifice themselves in order to pull out these troops from this soil."

U.S. helicopters fired flares to disperse the crowd.

Seeking to quickly tamp down the outrage, the White House apologized for the burning of Muslim holy books in a pile of garbage at Bagram.

PhotoBlog: Afghans besiege US base in protest over Quran burning

Press secretary Jay Carney said the "deeply unfortunate incident" doesn't reflect the respect the U.S. military has for the religious practices of the Afghan people.

Carney echoed military officials Tuesday in saying that the Quran burning happened unintentionally, and that an investigation was being undertaken to ensure it didn't happen again.

The top NATO general in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, also apologized. He said religious materials, including Qurans, that were identified for disposal were inadvertently taken to an incineration field at the airfield.

"Along with our apology to the Afghans is our certainty and assurance to them, that these kinds of incidents, when they do occur, will be corrected in the fastest and most appropriate manner possible," Allen said in a statement. "We've been shoulder to shoulder with the Afghans for a long time. We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them; we believe in their country, and we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."

Allen said he has also directed all coalition forces in Afghanistan to complete training in the proper handling of all religious materials by March 3.

A military official with knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press the Muslim holy books had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. He said it appeared the Qurans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and detainees apparently were leaving notes for one another inside them.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident.

 

'Very angry'
Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor's spokeswoman, said Qurans were burned inside Bagram, citing accounts from local laborers.

"The laborers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Qurans," she said.

Ahmad Zaki Zahed, chief of the provincial council, said U.S. military officials gave him about 30 Qurans and other religious books that were recovered before they were destroyed.

"Some are burned. Some are not burned," Zahed said, adding that the books were used by detainees once incarcerated at the base.

Latest killer of Afghan children: Hunger

The materials were in trash that two soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition transported in a truck late Monday night to a pit where garbage is burned on the base, according to Zahed, who spoke with five Afghans working at the pit.

He said that when the workers noticed the religious books in the trash, they stopped the disposal process.

Bagram also houses a prison for Afghans detained by American forces. The center has caused resentment among Afghans because of reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspected Taliban prisoners, with President Hamid Karzai demanding the transfer of prisoners to Afghan security.

NYT: Afghan girls pay price for elders' misdeeds

Protests raged for three days across Afghanistan in April after a U.S. pastor burned a Quran in Florida. Eleven people were killed when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, including seven foreign U.N. workers. Another riot in the southern city of Kandahar left nine dead and more than 80 wounded.

Meanwhile, NATO said three coalition service members have been killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. It did not give any other details about Tuesday's deaths.

So far this year, 47 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

Earlier, NATO reported that a fourth service member died Tuesday as a result of a non-battle related injury, also in the south.

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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.