KABUL, June 19: US soldiers shot dead an Afghan man who approached a guard tower at a US military base north of Kabul brandishing a pistol, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

The man was shot outside Bagram Air Base on Wednesday, Lt Col Tucker Mansager told a news briefing.

"(He) approached a guard tower brandishing a pistol and refused to respond to directives given to him to stop," he said.

"After repeated warnings and his failure to stop what he was doing and threatening the lives of the people that were guarding Bagram at that time, he was shot."

Mansager did not identify the man.

The United States heads a forces of about 20,000 mostly US troops pursuing Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militants in Afghanistan.-Reuters