At least one foreign peacekeeping soldier was hurt and two vehicles damaged by stone-throwing protesters as a demonstration against the killing of four Afghan soldiers by US embassy guards turned violent, witnesses said.

A soldier of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was bleeding from the head after his vehicle was pelted by stone-throwing demonstrators near the Great Masood Road roundabout close to the US embassy in Kabul.

Angry Afghan men block a road near the U.S embassy during a protest in Kabul May 24, 2003. About 200 people chanted 'Death to Americans' and threw rocks at the U.S. embassy in Kabul in protest against the killing of Afghan soldiers by U.S. troops at the same spot earlier in the week. Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters

One of the ISAF vehicles escaped with broken windows while another collided with a taxi and was stoned before it too escaped the mob. One of the soldiers inside was bleeding from a head wound while another had a bloody hand.

ISAF spokesman Colonel Paul Kolken said one soldier was slightly injured and had been treated and discharged. His nationality was being withheld.

At least two ISAF vehicles were damaged by demonstrators, the colonel said.

"ISAF were just coincidentally passing by," he said, adding that Afghan police were responsible for security at the demonstration.

Dozens of armed Afghan police and soldiers made little effort to restrain the hundred or so demonstrators who were mainly teen-aged boys and young men.

Plain-clothes Afghan security men carrying walkie-talkies followed the demonstration, while Turkish and Italian ISAF troops patrolled past the protesters in armored cars.

The protesters earlier marched past the nearby US embassy under a banner reading: "We want to judge the killers of the martyrs" referring to the US troops who shot dead four Afghan soldiers outside the embassy on Wednesday.

Chanting "Death to America", "Death to Karzai" and "Death to Bush," they briefly halted by the main gate and pelted the heavily fortified embassy with stones.

US troops guarding the compound observed from watchtowers and through the main gate but did not react.

Dozens of Afghan police in vans later blocked the road past the embassy.

US soldiers on Wednesday shot dead four Afghan soldiers after mistakenly thinking they were preparing to attack them amid new fears of potential terrorist attacks around the world.

Witnesses said the Afghan troops were transferring unloaded weapons, mostly Kalashnikov rifles, from one building to another when they came under fire from US Marines.

Earlier the demonstrators punched ISAF vehicles patrolling central Kabul and smashed the windscreen of a jeep whose driver was wearing a turban. Another older, turban-wearing man from Maimana in northern Afghanistan was attacked by demonstrators, who were mainly ethnic Tajiks. The Afghan military is dominated by Tajiks.

Haji Zahir, who was not badly hurt, said he had come to Kabul to apply for help from President Hamid Karzai in evicting armed men who had occupied his land.

After marching through the center of the Afghan capital, the demonstrators gathered outside one of the entrances to the presidential palace where they were blocked by around 50 armed Afghan soldiers before heading to the embassy.

US Special Forces in a Humvee vehicle with a mounted machine gun blocked the road to the main United Nations compound, but refused to comment on why they were there.

At the height of the demonstration, around 200 people joined the protest in central Kabul.

The demonstrators gradually dispersed around 1:00 pm (0830 GMT) after three hours of marching and chanting around the streets of Kabul.

Two demonstrations earlier this month protesting about civil servants not being paid and against Karzai's government passed off peacefully.

©2003 AFP

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