Kabul, Afghanistan ? A friendly game of basketball between a U.S. and Afghan team turned violent when spectators kicked a fallen American player and a guard rushing to protect him unintentionally shot two Afghans.

The incident Thursday at Kabul’s main stadium wasn’t the first time that an event staged to foster goodwill with Afghans has gotten out of control, and an Afghan sporting official suggested the games should be put off until the security situation in the capital improves.

The American squad, which included one British player, pulled out of the four-day basketball tournament with Afghan teams as a result of the violence.

The game was friendly until an American player running for the ball tumbled near the stands crowded with Afghans celebrating the Persian New Year, said Flight Lt. Tony Marshall, a spokesman for the 4,500-strong international peacekeeping force in Kabul.

Two Afghan spectators kicked him in the head, according to Marshall and witnesses, bringing an Afghan guard from the U.S. Embassy to his defense.

Trying to keep the crowd back, the guard cocked his Kalashnikov rifle, and unintentionally fired off a round as he used it to press back fans, Marshall said.

Two spectators suffered gunshot wounds in their legs, said a witness, Wahid Ullah, the stadium’s maintenance chief.

U.S. personnel surrounded the Afghan guard and hustled him out of the stadium for his own safety, Marshall said. He has since been turned over to Afghan police.

The game ended, and the spectators who kicked the American disappeared into the crowd, witnesses said.

One of the victims, Habibul Rahman, attributed the incident to fans becoming overexcited.

“It was not about people not liking Americans,” he said from his bed at the Italian-run Emergency hospital, his fractured leg elevated in a cast.

Nevertheless, Rahman, 19, said he wasn’t sure he’d go back to another international-Afghan match.

Since the arrival of international peacekeepers in the Afghan capital, sporting events and community visits have become important gestures toward Afghan civilians.

But while Afghans appreciate the goodwill exchanges, a sporting official, Abdul Zabur Azizi, said security wasn’t sufficient to guarantee the safety of spectators and players.

Just last month, a highly publicized soccer match between Afghans and international peacekeepers was marred when Afghan police beat back crowds surging to get through the stadium gates.

“Until our interior ministry is able to control the crowd security, we should not have these kinds of matches,” said Azizi, a consultant for the Kabul Olympic committee and a member of the Afghan basketball federation.

Marshall, the peacekeeping spokesman, referred questions about whether the Americans or other troops would rethink their goodwill policy to the U.S. Embassy, which didn’t return repeated calls seeking comment Friday.

Not all sporting events between international forces and Afghans have ended violently, however.

This week, British members of the international peacekeeping force played a cricket match with an Afghan team – complete with cucumber triangle sandwiches, scones and tea. The Afghans were ahead when rain stopped play.