Member of US-led coalition killed in apparent insider attack

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN » A soldier from the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan was killed Monday and two others were injured in an apparent insider attack by a member of the Afghan security forces, U.S. military officials here said.

The victims were not immediately identified, and no other details of the incident were released.

Afghan military sources said they were trying to confirm reports that an Afghan special operations forces commando had opened fire on U.S. troops in the Shindand region of western Herat province, killing one.

A Pentagon spokesman, Army Col. Rob Manning, said later that the fatality in Herat was not an American. He declined to say whether any of the wounded were U.S. troops and referred further questions to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban insurgent movement, said in a statement Monday evening that the assailant in Herat was a Taliban “infiltrator.”

The incident came four days after two top Afghan security officials in southern Kandahar province were shot dead by a member of the provincial governor’s security team.

The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, escaped unhurt in the attack, which claimed the life of Afghan National Police Gen. Abdul Raziq, a fierce anti-insurgent fighter who was considered the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault Thursday in the compound of the Kandahar provincial governor.

The shooting by a lone attacker targeted a highlevel meeting in Kandahar between U.S. and Afghan officials on plans to secure nationwide parliamentary elections Saturday.

Three Americans sustained gunshot wounds in the Kandahar attack, including Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey D. Smiley, according to four people with knowledge of the incident. Military officials have not identified the wounded, describing them only as a U.S. service member, a contractor who was part of the military coalition and a civilian.

Smiley has commanded the U.S. military assistance mission in southern Afghanistan since August, according to his National Guard biography.