U.S. convoy fired on near Kabul

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- A U.S. convoy came under fire while traveling along a road linking this air base with the capital Kabul in the latest shooting incident involving American forces, U.S. officials said Saturday.

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred before dusk Friday, Col. Robert King said. One tracer round was seen passing above the four-vehicle convoy, King said.

Tracer rounds, which are visible because they glow, are usually interspersed among other rounds, indicating more bullets could have been fired.

"They're assuming it's hostile," King said. "There were no known friendly forces in the area."

King added there were no plans to increase security on the road, which runs through an area that was heavily mined during Afghanistan's 23 years of war.

Concern over security for U.S. troops has increased since a July 1 incident in which an American AC-130 gunship opened fire on several villages in Uruzgan province. Afghan officials said 48 civilians were killed, including 25 attending a wedding celebration.

Another 117 people were wounded, the Afghans said.

The attack, which is under investigation, angered many Afghans because it followed a series of mistaken raids and friendly fire incidents, most of which occurred in the ethnic Pashtun areas of the south.

One day after the airstrike, a U.S. military convoy was fired on as it returned to the American base from the hospital in Kandahar where Afghan victims were undergoing treatment. One soldier was wounded in the foot.

A U.S. Special Forces compound came under grenade and small arms fire Thursday in the province where the airstrike occurred but no one was injured.

Also Thursday, a U.S. soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division suffered a concussion when a bullet struck his kevlar helmet while on patrol near Kandahar.

A U.S. team is assembling at Bagram air base to begin collecting evidence in connection with the airstrike, King said. The chief investigator is Brig. Gen. Anthony F. Przybyslawski, assistant director of operations at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

The Afghan government has named Maj. Gen. Sher Mohammed Kareemi as an observer to the investigative team, which will include aviation, legal and medical experts.

U.S. deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz will travel to Afghanistan on Monday to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials.

Wolfowitz will probably discuss reaction to the U.S. air raid and the demands by six Afghan governors that they be consulted and give approval before any U.S. military operations in their provinces.