The incident happened as stone-throwing followers of ethnic Uzbek warlord and former Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rashid Dostam rallied to demand the removal of the governor of Jowzjan province.

"We have nine people dead in the hospital and we registered another 32 wounded," Simia Jan, the director of the main hospital in the provincial capital, Shiberghan, told AFP.

Jan said most of the wounds were from bullets. Some of the injured were discharged from the hospital after initial medical care.

Witness Jan Ali told AFP by telephone that hundreds of people were protesting against governor Juma Khan Hamdard and hurling rocks at the governor's office when police opened fire.

A spokesman for the governor, however, said that some of the protesters were armed and that it was they who opened fire as they tried to storm the governor's office.

"Police were in a defensive position. When the protesters opened fire police had to defend themselves and as a result three police were wounded," said spokesman Rohullah Samoon.

Meanwhile, two dozen Taliban militants were killed when US-led forces backed by warplanes repelled an ambush on a supply convoy in Afghanistan, the coalition said Monday.

A 10-hour gunbattle broke out after two roadside bombs hit the convoy of 24 trucks in volatile Helmand province on Sunday, killing a civilian truck driver and wounding three coalition troops, it said in a statement.

Joint Afghan and coalition forces called in air strikes after insurgents followed up the blasts with rocket propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the statement said.