KABUL : NATO-led troops shot dead an Afghan civilian whose vehicle approached a convoy on Sunday in an area that has seen violent civil unre st over t he past week in Afghanistan, the alliance said.
It was at least the third time in a week that either NATO or Afghan troops had shot civilians in Helmand Province's Garmsir district, raising the political temperature in an area mostly seized by US Marines from the Taliban last year.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said troops had opened fire after a large vehicle with no headlights approached a convoy at high speed early Sunday morning.

The troops fired 3-5 rounds into the vehicle's grill, ISAF said in a statement. One Afghan civilian man in the vehicle was hit in the chest and died hours later at a US base where he was brought to treat his wounds.

The statement did not identify the nationality of the troops involved in the incident. The NATO-led ISAF force is manned in the area mainly by US Marin