NATO-led forces kill Afghan cleric in Kabul

An Afghan civilian shot dead by NATO-led forces in the Afghan capital Kabul Thursday was a Muslim cleric, the alliance said in a statement.

Muhammad Yonus, who was imam of a mosque in central Kabul, was in a car when a convoy of troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot him.

"In an unfortunate incident this morning, an ISAF convoy fired on what appeared to be a threatening vehicle. Regrettably, an Afghan civilian was killed ... He was initially wounded in the incident, but later died of his wounds," an ISAF statement said.

The incident triggered a protest outside a large U.S. military base in Kabul. ISAF have declined to comment on the nationality of the convoy involved.

The shooting could increase tensions between Afghans and foreign troops at a time when Washington and its allies want to limit civilian casualties and protect the population as part of their strategy to weaken the Taliban insurgency.

But a number of incidents over the past year involving ISAF air strikes on Afghan villages, which have led to large numbers of civilians being killed, have undermined efforts to reduce such casualties.

Elsewhere, a member of U.S. forces was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in another statement.

There are more than 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan fighting the insurgency, which claimed record numbers of civilian and foreign troop lives in 2009.

More than 50 countries are meeting in London to produce a plan to strengthen Afghan security forces and the Kabul government and start engaging the Taliban in order to pave the way for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.