Two U.S. soldiers killed in attack in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in an insider attack late Saturday in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said.

A member of Nangarhar’s provincial council, Ajmal Omer, said that the gunman was killed. There have been several attacks by Afghan national army soldiers on their allied partners during the 18 years of America’s war in Afghanistan.

Six U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2020, including Saturday’s casualties. Last year, 22 U.S. service personnel died in combat there.

An Afghan defense ministry official, who was not identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had argued with the U.S. forces before opening fire. He was not a Taliban infiltrator, the official said.

In a statement, the U.S. military said: “An individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined

U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun. We are still collecting information, and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time.”

The U.S. military said American and Afghan military personnel were fired on while conducting an operation in Nangarhar province. An Afghan soldier was wounded too, Omer said.

Meanwhile, Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been meeting with Taliban representatives in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar. He is seeking an agreement to reduce hostilities.