Rioting in Kabul after US embassy car kills four civilians

The Afghan capital is on high alert after rioting sparked by the death of four civilians when a US embassy vehicle crashed into their car. There are fears of a repeat of the city-wide riots that struck Kabul in 2006. Police fired shots into the air in a bid to disperse an angry mob that torched two embassy vehicles and threw stones at police and Nato soldiers who rushed to the scene near the centre of Kabul's diplomatic quarter. Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, the head of Kabul's crime investigation department, said six Afghan civilians were involved in the accident and four died. The US embassy said the vehicle had been carrying four US contractors who "co-operated immediately with local Afghan security forces after the incident". "Our sympathies go out to the families of those Afghans injured or killed in this tragic accident," the embassy statement said. Source: Guardian (UK)