Afghanistan soldier opens fire at base, wounds 3 US troops

An Afghan soldier opened fire Sunday inside a base in the southern Helmand province, wounding three U.S. soldiers before being shot dead, an Afghan official said.

Col. Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, an army spokesman, said the soldier had made a “mistake” and had not fired deliberately.

Capt. William Salvin, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said security forces on the base killed the attacker.

The attack happened around 1:30 p.m. local time at Camp Antonik in Washer District in Helmand.

Further details were unavailable on Sunday.

Since 2008, there have been 94 “insider” attacks in Afghanistan, with at least 150 foreign soldiers killed and 187 wounded, according to the Long War Journal blog.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Sunday, Taliban insurgents attacked a district headquarters in the Kandahar province using a suicide car bomb, said Samim Khpolwak, a spokesman for the governor.

He declined to say how many people were killed or wounded.

A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said six police officers were killed and five others were wounded in the assault, which was claimed by the Taliban.

The Afghan government in Kabul has come under growing pressure from the Taliban and other armed insurgents.

In the southern Zabul province, an army operation killed 13 Taliban and wounded 11 others, said Gen. Sadiqullah Saberi. The general said two Afghan soldiers were killed.