A female American soldier wearing a burkah over an ammunitions belt on a walk through a ladies-only bazaar in Kabul unwittingly sparked a security scare on Sunday, when Afghan police mistook her for a potential suicide bomber.
"A woman entered the Women's Garden and the security forces got suspicious because she was wearing an ammunitions belt under her burkah," the capital's police chief, General Baba Jan, said.
"After she was stopped and searched she was found with weapons. Then she was identified as an American soldier working for the coalition forces."
Peacekeepers and Afghan police sealed all roads leading to the Women's Garden, a cosmetics and lingerie bazaar set up in a city park for women only.
She was later escorted by police out of the park.
Foreigners in Kabul have been advised to keep a low profile and restrict their movements as they become increasingly targeted.
"After security incidents involving foreigners, the American lady, who only recently arrived in Afghanistan, thought that by wearing a burkah, with her ammunition belt and uniform underneath, she would be safe to go anywhere she wants," Jan said.
"She acknowledged that she had made a mistake using a burkah to get into the Women's Garden. She wanted to go to the women's market dressed in the traditional Afghan way and see the shops and buy things," he said.
A suicide bomber on Kabul's popular Chicken Street shopping strip killed an American woman and an Afghan girl on October 23 and wounded three Icelandic peacekeepers and five other Afghans.
On October 28 three foreign UN election workers were snatched from their car in the middle of the day on a busy Kabul road by armed gunmen. They are still being held hostage.
Burkah-clad US soldier triggers bomb scare
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