UN driver killed in Kabul, police clash with protesters

KABUL - A United Nations driver was shot dead Tuesday in Kabul while 20 people were injured when police clashed with a stone-throwing mob in another part of the city, officials said.

An unknown gunman shot at the UN vehicle near the US embassy and a foreign military base, said Abdul Qafar Sayedzada, a senior Kabul police official.

Sayedzada did not name the base, but the base near the US embassy belongs to the United States.

UN officials confirmed the shooting and said the driver, who was shot in the eye, died in hospital.

“Tragically, one United Nations staff member, an Afghan national, was killed,” a UN statement said. “The circumstances of the shooting are not yet clear.”

A police official who asked not to be named had earlier said the shot was fired from inside the military base and the driver died.

In eastern Kabul, more than 200 protesters blocked a road and shouted anti-government and anti-US slogans while throwing stones at police, witnesses and an officer said.

At least five protesters and 15 policemen were injured, said Khalil Dastyar, the deputy police chief of Kabul province.

But local resident Mohammad Rafi said police opened fire on the crowd and evacuated two men covered in blood. “I don’t think the two men were alive when they were taken by a police vehicle,” he said.

Other residents said the protest was prompted by a raid conducted by soldiers at a religious school Monday night. The troops searched the compound for explosives with a sniffer dog. Dogs are considered unclean in Islam.

At least three suspects were arrested in Monday night’s raid, Dastyar said.

A NATO spokeswoman confirmed that troops took part in the search but insisted that it was an Afghan-led operation.