Asia-Pacific

Troops keep watch over Afghan capital

(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-30 20:28

Chanting "Death to America," rioters stoned the U.S. convoy involved in the accident Monday then headed to the center of Kabul, ransacking offices of international aid groups and searching for foreigners. Smoke billowed from burning buildings along the path of destruction.

The violence erupted after a mechanical malfunction sent a large cargo truck careering into about a dozen vehicles at an intersection in Kabul, the U.S. military said. Up to five people were killed in the crash. It wasn't clear whether these deaths were in the tolls the hospitals reported.

The rioters claimed U.S. troops had shot and killed civilians at the scene of the accident.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition confirmed there was gunfire but said coalition personnel in one military vehicle only fired over the crowd. The coalition expressed regret for any deaths and injuries, and said there would be an investigation.

President Hamzid Karzai went on television Monday night to decry the outburst, branding the rioters as troublemakers who should be resisted and linking their violence to the long years of conflict that wrecked Afghanistan.

About 2,000 troops prowled the city to enforce an overnight curfew, which passed without incident, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

"The army has control of the city. We have tanks in the city for the first time," he said.

As the violence eased late Monday, embassies sent out convoys of armored vehicles to pick up their nationals from homes and buildings across the city and bring them to foreign military bases where they spent the night.

An Associated Press reporter saw several demonstrators pull a man who appeared to be a Westerner from a civilian vehicle and beat him. The man escaped and ran to a line of police, who fired shots over the heads of the demonstrators.

Other Westerners escaped the protesters by driving at high speed and refusing to stop when the rioters tried to block their way.