Taliban loyalist kills 3 U.S. soldiers, injures 1
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
An Afghan official said the deaths and injury stem from an attack by an Afghan soldier, who also died.
In a statement from Washington, the Pentagon didn’t provide details about what led to the deaths of the U.S. soldiers. It said the incident was under investigation.
A spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar province, Attahullah Khogyani, said in a statement that the attack took place in the Achin district.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that a Taliban loyalist had infiltrated the Afghan army “just to attack foreign forces.”
In March, an Afghan soldier was killed after he opened fire on foreign forces at a base in Helmand province, wounding three U.S. soldiers.
White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters traveling with President Donald Trump in New Jersey that Trump was “following the emerging situation in Afghanistan.” Earlier, a U.S. airstrike in southern Afghanistan accidentally killed at least two Afghan policemen, according to Afghan officials.
Afghan officials said a U.S. airstrike on a border outpost in southern Helmand province killed two border police officers and wounded six others late Friday or early Saturday. A news release from the U.S. military on Saturday confirmed that an incident had happened in the area overnight in which “personnel from the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces were killed and wounded.”
According to Omar Zwak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, the airstrike on the border police post took place in the Nad Ali District. While initial reports said two policemen had been killed and six wounded, an investigating team sent to the area found “the death toll is rising,” Zwak said.
Another official said other reports said that as many as eight policemen had been killed. Both officials said the incident took place as a result of an Afghan operation.