Afghan gun attack wounds US soldier

Four US soldiers died near Kandahar this week

A US soldier in Afghanistan is being treated in hospital for a light face wound after being shot by a gunman who fired from a passing car, the Pentagon said.

Afghan security forces launched a manhunt immediately after the attack outside the governor's mansion in the southern city of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the ousted Taleban regime.

No one saw him - it was really crowded and he shot from some distance

Khalid Pashtoon
spokesman for the regional government in Kandahar

A US spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Lapan, said he was in a stable condition at a US base outside Kandahar, but was likely to be evacuated for further treatment.

Four American soldiers were killed and one badly injured in an accidental explosion on Monday in the Kandahar region.

In Wednesday's shooting, the Americans initially thought a firework had been thrown from a vehicle until they saw that a man was bleeding.

US officials quoted by one news agency said a single, small-calibre round had been fired from a distance and had passed through his cheek without striking his teeth or jaws.

Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for the regional government in Kandahar, confirmed that the gunmen had fired from a distance.

"No one saw him - it was really crowded and he shot from some distance," he said.

Security crackdown

The wounded American walked to his vehicle unaided despite the wound, an Afghan witness was quoted as saying.

Police cordoned off the area and detained several people for questioning.

The incident occurred as Afghan pro-government forces searched the city for remnants of the Taleban and their al-Qaeda militant allies.

Coalition forces including British Marines also recently stepped up operations against the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda followers.

About 7,000 US troops are deployed in Afghanistan, pursuing the war on terror launched after the 11 September suicide attacks on America.

The four Americans killed on Monday bring the death toll among US troops in and around Afghanistan since the start of the war last year to 36.