CONAKRY, Guinea: Shooting was heard in military bases across Guinea overnight, as soldiers apparently protested to demand promised pay raises from a government shaken by rioting and general strikes earlier this year, witnesses said Friday.

At least one person was killed as soldiers looted the area around an eastern base during the night.

The first shots were heard in the interior late Wednesday, with residents in Kindia, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital of Conakry, saying military barracks there erupted in gunfire and stray bullets sent more than a dozen people to the hospital.

Government ministers were set to meet Friday to address the issue. Government officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

"We have received about 20 injured between Wednesday night and Thursday that we treated with what little we have. Many of the injuries were gunshots in the arm, back, or in the face from stray bullets," said Amidou Cisse, a doctor at the Kindia hospital.

A police report said 25 civilians were injured by stray bullets in Kindia.

Residents in Conakry, along with interior towns of Labe, Macenta, Gueckedou, Faranah and N'Zerekore said they heard shooting at bases there throughout Thursday night.

"They go out in the streets and shoot in the air and ask for their money from the president," said Haadi Diallo, resident of Conakry's Simbaya neighborhood, a suburb near the military camp Alpha Yaya.

In N'Zerekore, in far eastern Guinea, a shopkeeper was beaten to death by soldiers trying to loot his store, witnesses said.

"They killed him because he was trying to keep them from stealing, and because he threatened to expose them the next morning," said Oumar Leno, a neighbor who saw the incident.

The Guinean soldiers are asking for back pay of about 300 billion Guinean francs dating from a 1996 promise by President Lansana Conte to add to their salary. That augmentation was won by an army mutiny that Conte put down only by vowing to raise salaries.

"We don't want to frighten the population, but Lansana Conte owes money to us, the soldiers," said Lt. Mamadou Bah Diallo, who is stationed in the capital.

The West African nation's longtime president has hung onto power despite mass protests earlier this year demanding that he step down. After a series of labor-called strikes turned bloody, with security forces firing on demonstrators and killing scores, Conte appointed an independent prime minister to share in governing.

The military's loyalty is seen as key to Conte maintaining his power. Conte himself took power in a military coup in 1984.

Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate visited a base in Conakry late Friday to listen to the soldiers' complaints.

"I have come to listen to you, to know your demands, because a frustrated army can't perform," Kouyate told the assembled soldiers. A spokesman for the fighters said the group had no desire to overthrow the government.

"We are not calling for a coup d'etat," Lt. Abdoul Gadiri Diallo said, but added that fighters had waited too long for the promised salaries.

Many of Guinea's 10 million people live without the most basic public services, even though the country is world's largest producer of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum.

The country is seen as potential trigger point for violence in a region recovering from a series of devastating conflicts in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, and continued instability in Ivory Coast.

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Associated Press Writer Abou Bakr contributed to this report from Conakry.