Gunfire 'very close' to German patrol

Automatic gunfire from a compound housing Afghan militiamen struck ‘‘very close’’ to patrolling German peacekeeping soldiers in the first such incident in more than a month, the UN peacekeeping force said today.

No one was injured in the incident on Friday near a compound of the Northern Alliance, which was allied with the coalition in last autumn’s war against the Taliban, said a force spokesman, British Flight Lt. Tony Marshall.

Such attacks on the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been rare since it was established by the UN Security Council on December 20.

The ISAF spokesman said German military officers would take up the matter with the interim Afghan government’s Interior Ministry.

The automatic gunfire was ‘‘substantial, not one or two rounds’’, and struck a wall near the German soldiers, Marshall said. It came from a compound of the Northern Alliance, a militia largely composed of Tajiks and other minority groups of northern Afghanistan that captured the capital Kabul last November in a prelude to the final fall of the Taliban government.

The Germans believe that whoever fired did not intend to hit them, Marshall said. He said only one weapon was believed involved; he did not know how many Germans were in the patrol.

‘‘This is a strange affair. I imagine some sort of investigation will go on,’’ he said.

In two earlier incidents, British peacekeeping troops came under fire briefly from gunmen in western Kabul in late February. No peacekeepers were injured.

The 4,500-member, British-led ISAF contingent, made up of troops from six nations, is responsible for maintaining order in the capital.