German peacekeepers, Afghan police and private bodyguards engaged in a brawl today as delegates arrived for the second day of a Loya Jirga grand assembly called to elect a new government for Afghanistan.
Witnesses and police said the German troops, from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), first fought with the bodyguards of a prominent delegate to the assembly, Mr Ahmad Wali Masood, after they refused to be disarmed.
Afghan police and security officials then stepped up, surrounding some German troops, pointing their guns at them and engaging in brief hand-to-hand fighting. No shots were fired but some of the bodyguards sustained minor injuries.
"The Germans have no translator but they said Mr Masood's bodyguards pointed their guns at them and that is why they wanted to disarm them," one police official said.
Security was promptly strengthened at the site of the Loya Jirga, with the ISAF sending four armored vehicles to the area.
The clash appeared to reflect a deep-seated suspicion of foreign interference and military presence in a country that has a long history of struggle against foreign domination and which threw out the British in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 1980s.
"I think the ISAF has overstepped its limits somewhat," a senior defence official said. "It must learn to keep within its boundary."
Mr Masood is the brother of assassinated Northern Alliance hero Mr Ahmad Shah Masood. No further details were immediately available but the ISAF was due to make a statement later in the day.