KABUL: Scores of Afghans rioted outside the US embassy in Kabul on Friday after a Nato vehicle crashed into a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said. Television pictures showed at least one armoured vehicle in flames as young Afghan men threw stones at it.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had despatched a quick reaction force to the area, near US and Afghan army bases in the centre of the city.

“We don’t know yet how many people were killed in the accident,” interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashery said. He confirmed ISAF vehicles were involved in the incident.

Witnesses said four passengers of the civilian car died when it was hit by one of two military vehicles moving in convoy.

“Afghan security forces cordoned off the area, closing the road to Kabul’s international airport,” an AFP reporter witnessed. An ISAF official said the incident was being investigated.

Local resident Saleh Ahmed said the accident happened when the civilian vehicle attempted to drive onto the main road from a side street and was hit by one of the two military vehicles.

“The civilian vehicle was trying to get into the main road when the two foreign vehicles hit it and killed all four occupants,” he said. “People gathered around the crash site to see what had happened, got angry and started attacking the foreigners.”

The AFP reporter on the scene said police helped the foreigners leave as the riot conintued for about an hour before people started to disperse.

Young Afghan men threw stones and shouted “death to foreigners” and “death to Karzai,” referring to President Hamid Karzai, he said. A similar traffic incident led to massive riots that shook the capital in May 2006, leaving at least 14 people dead.

Separately, British and Afghan troops on Friday launched a military operation to secure a transport route in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, one of the most volatile theatres of the nine-year war.

The operation began in Sayedebad town in Nad Ali, a district bordering Marjah, where US Marines in February launched one of the biggest operations of the nearly nine-year war.

Britain’s defence ministry said Operation Tor Shezada, or “black prince,” would improve security in Marjah by securing a transportation route between the two areas that would “increase freedom of movement for locals.”

The offensive involved the 1st Battalion, The Duke Of Lancaster’s Regiment, the statement said, without giving further operational details. It described Sayedebad as a town of 6,000 residents just north of Marjah.

“The operation is currently ongoing and reports back from the commanders on the ground say it is progressing according to plan,” Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, was quoted as saying.

“Similar to the aims of the Marjah offensive, Tor Shezada is aimed at driving Taliban from the area so that government control can be re-established, to be followed by development projects such as schools, clinics and markets,” the statement said.