Several Afghans shot dead in riot over U.S. accident

KABUL, May 29 (Reuters) Several Afghans were killed and at least 20 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.

There was further sporadic small arms fire by police and Afghan army soldiers as demonstrators marched towards a neighbourhood housing several embassies as protests grew in size around the city, and helicopters circled overhead.

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

Some eyewitnesses blamed the U.S. troops, others blamed the police and some said both had opened fire.

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

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

A government doctor said at least 20 people had been admitted to hospitals with gunshot wounds, but no dead bodies had been received as yet.

Earlier, the crowd had blocked the U.S. convoy after one of its vehicles hit a taxi, killing at least one person, on the northern outskirts of Kabul during the morning rush hour.

Rioters set two police vehicles on fire and damaged a vehicle belonging to an Afghan television station.

''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.

After the initial riot was quelled, more gunfire crackled as some 2,000 demonstrators marched toward the city centre, tearing down a billboard poster of President Hamid Karzai, smashing windows and looting shops as they went.

A Reuters journalist said police were firing in the air.

The marchers, chanting anti-U.S. and anti-Karzai slogans, split into two groups -- one heading towards parliament and the other towards the heavily fortified presidential palace.

''We don't accept Karzai any more as a president. We protest against him: death to Karzai!'' Jaweed Agha, one of the protesters, shouted.

FATAL CRASH 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.

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 the volatile south, where a Taliban-inspired insurgency is raging.

More than 20 Afghans were killed in anti-Western protests in the past year, some of them over the alleged heavy-handeness of foreign troops.

REUTERS SHB PC15187