At least 11 people were killed and 50 others were wounded when Afghan police opened fire at angry demonstrators who took to streets in protest of killing four people in a NATO raid.

At least 11 people were killed and 50 others were wounded when Afghan police opened fire at angry demonstrators who took to streets in protest of killing four people in a NATO raid.

"Now we have 11 dead and over 50 other people admitted with injuries to hospital," acting provincial health director, Hassan Basij, told AFP.

NATO occupation forces killed four people early on Wednesday including two women, claiming that they were armed.

Coalition occupation troops attacked a house in Taloqan, capital of the relatively peaceful Takhar province, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

NATO claimed that the dead in the overnight raid were armed; saying they were insurgents who attempted to shoot at the forces, but the protesters said those killed during the NATO raid were civilians.

"Two women had weapons and attempted to shoot at the forces. The first woman had an AK-47, the forces shouted both in Pashto and Dari to put down the weapon but she did not and then she was shot," the spokesman said.

"The second woman came out with a pistol shooting at the forces, she was shot too."

In the meantime, Afghan President Hamid Karzai "strongly condemned the overnight NATO operation that resulted in the deaths of four members of a family," his office said in a statement.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP news agency in Kabul: "There have been demonstrations, about 2,000 have demonstrated over the operation overnight. The demonstrations have turned violent."

Bashary said initially that three people had died and about 14 others, eight of them police, were injured in the protest.