BAGRAM, July 26: About 2,000 Afghans protested outside the main American base in Afghanistan on Tuesday after the arrest of several villagers in what the US military said was an anti-insurgent operation. US soldiers fired shots in the air after some protesters threw stones at military vehicles entering Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, witnesses said.

Protesters chanted anti-US slogans outside the Bagram base to demand the release of three men they said were detained when US troops entered a house in Bagram village without permission. Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O’Hara, a US spokesman at Bagram, said US and Afghan forces had arrested eight people after a raid on a compound during which troops discovered improvised bombs of the sort used by Taliban and allied insurgents.

A US military statement said those detained were suspected of planning attacks on US-led forces. Protesters banged with fists and sticks on the main gate of the base and burned tyres on the road leading to it.

Some protesters threatened to resort to arms if the military did not release those detained, who they said included a former factional commander, Engineer Hamidullah. “We should fight these strangers until they stop going to our houses without our permission,” said one demonstrator.

“We are united against these foreigners ... we will fight them as we did the Russians,” he said, referring to the 10-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that ended in 1989. The protesters dispersed after Afghan police told them that the Americans will hand over the detainees to Afghan authorities.—Reuters