NATO peacekeepers sent F-16 fighter jets to a northeastern Afghanistan province today in a show of force to disperse thousands of protesters.
At least six people were injured when supporters and opponents of a provincial official in Takhar province clashed, police said.
NATO sent its jets after local officials failed to disperse the 6,000-strong crowd. One group demanded the removal of the education chief in the province's Rustaq district, while the other opposed the move, provincial police chief Akram Khan told Reuters.
"The jets came and managed to scatter the protesters," Mr Khan said. "Six of the protesters, I know, were injured."
A spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that two NATO F-16 jets had been sent from the capital Kabul at the government's request "as a form of deterrent".
The protests came as the government prepared to launch a campaign to eradicate opium poppy fields in the district of Afghanistan's main opium producing region, but they were apparently not connected to this, Mr Khan said.
NATO leads more than 8,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan, where ISAF has been since US-led forces overthrew the radical Taliban government in 2001. Most of its troops are based in Kabul.
Earlier today, a roadside bomb aimed at an ISAF vehicle exploded in Kabul, wounding seven Afghans. No peacekeepers were hurt in the attack, which officials blamed on "enemies of Afghanistan" a term used to describe Taliban guerrillas and their allies.
Last week, a roadside bomb wounded two NATO soldiers from Holland in Baghlan province, adjacent to Takhar.