One man was killed and four people, including two French nationals, were injured Thursday in a grenade attack on international peacekeepers in Kabul, the second attack on foreign troops in the Afghan capital this week. Members of the 22-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) opened fire on the man after he lobbed one grenade in their direction and reached to throw another, ISAF spokesman Gordon Mackenzie said.

"He came in the entrance where workers go to the compound," he said. "He pulled out a grenade and threw it. He went to reach for a second grenade at which point the guards opened fire."

Mackenzie added that two French nationals working for an unnamed French NGO in Afghanistan were injured in the grenade blast, along with an Afghan interpreter working for ISAF and another Afghan interpreting for the NGO.

The ISAF worker was "badly" wounded but there were no details as to the nature of the other injuries. One of the French nationals was a man and the other a woman.

Mackenzie said all of the injuries were sustained in the grenade explosion and not when ISAF troops opened fire on the attacker. But the exact cause of his death was unknown, he added.

The attack happened at the gate of Camp Warehouse, one of the main ISAF bases and the headquarters of the force's German- commanded Kabul Multinational Brigade.

It was the second attack on foreign troops in the Afghan capital this week, but ISAF spokesman Commander Tony Grubb from New Zealand said no peacekeepers had been hurt.

U.S. SPECIAL FORCES ATTACKED

Tuesday, two U.S. Special Forces soldiers and their Afghan driver were wounded in central Kabul when a small grenade was thrown into their Russian-made jeep.

Police said two teenage Afghans were arrested after that attack and one confessed to carrying out the attack to protest against the treatment of Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan.

Earlier, another ISAF official, who did not want to be identified, said it appeared Thursday's attack on the German base might have been a suicide attack.

Camp Warehouse is the base for the major part of ISAF, which is charged with assisting security in Kabul.

German personnel blocked the road leading to the base. A pilotless aircraft was seen buzzing over it and U.S. Special Forces soldiers arrived at the scene to assist the security cordon.

Afghan troops tightened security in Kabul after Tuesday's attack but ISAF said it had not raised its alert state from low as a result.

There are around 4,700 foreign peacekeepers in Kabul and thousands more American and allied troops scouring the country for remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and leaders of the ousted Taliban regime.

Tuesday a United Nations group monitoring financing to al Qaeda said it believed the network had set up new training camps in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.

PHOTO CAPTION

An injured soldier is unloaded from the airplane at Ramstein Airbase, Germany on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002. Two injured US soldiers based in Kabul were brought to the Landstuhl medical center for further medical treatment. (AP Photo/Daniel Maurer)
- Dec 19 4:24 PM ET