By IPS Correspondents
KABUL, May 21 2003 (IPS)

US soldiers guarding the American Embassy in Kabul shot and killed three Afghan soldiers on Wednesday who they mistook to be assailants, the chief of police in the Afghan capital said.

The shootout occurred as the Afghan forces were unloading weapons from a truck, said Kabul Police Chief Basir Salangi.

It was a misunderstanding between the American guards at the US embassy and our soldiers who were unloading weapons, Salangi told Associated Press.

There were no apparent US casualties, he said. US and Afghan forces sealed off the area after the shooting. Two other Afghan soldiers were wounded in the exchange, Salangi said.

He said the soldiers were delivering the weapons to an intelligence agency barracks across from the embassy.

They wanted to unload the weapons to store them inside the barracks, which belongs to the intelligence service, he said.

US embassy and Afghan government officials had no immediate comment.

Maj. Sarah Wood, a British spokeswoman for the international peacekeepers patrolling the capital, said the shooting was being investigated.

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