Violent protests rock Afghan capital

At least four people have died in riots in Kabul after US and Afghan forces fired on civilians protesting against a fatal car accident involving US soldiers, witnesses say.

Aljazeera's correspondent in the capital described the situation as out of control, with gunfire heard in many areas and with government buildings closed.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the accident on Monday morning said US troops opened fire and killed at least four people. He said two men were shot dead next to him, and two other bodies were found after the burst of gunfire. Several were wounded.

Later in the day, protesters marched to the palace housing Hamid Karzai, the US-backed Afghan president, setting fire to police cars and shouting: "Death to America."

Although marchers were prevented from reaching the presidential palace by security, there are reports that some may have got into the lightly guarded parliament building, the correspondent added.

Staff at the US embassy were moved to a secure location within the heavily fortified embassy while hundreds of Afghan army troops were deployed around Kabul.

The unrest began in the morning after three US Humvees en route from Bagram ran into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars, witnesses said.

Captain Frank Pasqual, a US military spokesman in Dubai, told Aljazeera that one person was killed and six injured in the incident, which he blamed on a mechanical failure.

Eyewitnesses said that US forces opened fire on protesters who had gathered, as had Afghan forces who had come to help the the US troops.

Captain Pasqual could not confirm if US forces had subsequently opened fire on protesters, although Colonel Thomas Collins, a coalition spokesman in Kabul, said that US personnel had fired over the protesters' heads.

However, a Kabul police chief, Sher Shah Usafi, said at least three people were killed and 16 wounded in the crash. US forces killed one person and wounded two when they fired on the protesters, he said.

The United States has 23,000 troops in Afghanistan. A Nato-led peacekeeping force also has more than 9,000 troops in the country, most of them stationed in Kabul and the more peaceful north and west.

It is currently expanding its mission to the south. A Taliban commander this week said the Taliban had regained control of the southern provinces in its fight to remove foreign forces from the country and overthrow the US-backed government.

Agencies