Firing kills several Afghans at U S accident demo

KABUL, May 29 (Reuters) Several Afghans were killed and more were wounded today when firing erupted during a violent protest over a traffic accident involving a U S military convoy in the capital Kabul, Afghan officials said.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the shooting that broke out as Afghan police came to the assistance of the U S convoy when it came under attack from a crowd hurling stones and smashing vehicle windows.

A Reuters reporter at the scene saw one man shot dead and several wounded people being taken away.

Witnesses said some protesters had been killed after police intervened and forced residents to scatter.

''A number of our citizens have been martyred and a number of them have been wounded,'' Yunus Qanuni, president of the lower house of parliament, told the assembly. He urged people to exercise restraint.

Police said some people had been killed, but were unable to be more specific.

Earlier, the crowd had blocked the U.S. convoy after one of its vehicles hit a taxi, killing at least one person.

A U S military spokeswoman confirmed that a military vehicle had been involved in an accident in which one person had been killed and six injured.

The spokeswoman, Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, said she had no information on the subsequent shooting. Another U S military spokesman, Paul Fitzpatrick, said no U.S. troops had been hurt.

''People are very angry,'' said resident Samad Shah.

Scores of protesters briefly blocked a main road running through the capital. Protesters set two police vehicles on fire and damaged a vehicle belonging to an Afghan television station.

Gunfire later erupted between protesters and police, Reuters journalists said. A man standing next to a Reuters cameraman was shot and killed, the cameraman said.

A crowd of around 200 demonstrators gathered and began marching towards central Kabul, chanting slogans against the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The United States has 23,000 troops in Afghanistan.

A NATO-led peacekeeping force has more than 9,000 troops in the country, most of them stationed in Kabul and the more peaceful north and west. It is now expanding its mission to thevolatile south, where a Taliban-inspired insurgency is raging.

REUTERS AD BST1326