Kandahar, Afghanistan ? Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan early Tuesday, and a gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him and killed a man in a bakery.

NATO said one civilian was killed and two wounded in the cross-fire after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and guns as the convoy passed through a civilian area. NATO said soldiers returned fire, but did not specify if the casualties were caused by militants or soldiers.

Afghan officials have pleaded repeatedly with international troops to exercise caution to prevent civilian casualties, which have fueled distrust of international forces and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

One of the victims, Sidiqullah Khan, was shot in the leg and the hand. He said his friend, a baker with whom he was talking during the clash, was killed.

“I was sitting in a bread shop. There was some fighting with a NATO convoy. The NATO convoy came and started firing on us,” Khan said from his hospital bed. “My friend was killed.”

NATO said the incident was being investigated.

The Taliban “chose the time and location of the attack, deliberately putting the lives of civilians at risk,” said Lt. Col. Mike Smith, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. “ISAF soldiers go to great lengths to minimize the risk to civilians, but this incident will be fully investigated by the Afghan National Police, supported by ISAF.”

Kandahar provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai declined comment on the incident, saying it is being investigated.