Afghan insider attack kills U.S. soldier, injures several
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier shot and killed a U.S. soldier and wounded several others Wednesday before being shot dead, the first socalled insider attack to target NATO troops since they ended their combat mission at the start of the year.
The shooting happened after Afghan provincial leaders met a U.S. Embassy official at the compound of the Nangarhar provincial governor in the city of Jalalabad.
All U.S. Embassy were accounted for safe, the diplomatic said.
“Right after the U.S. official had left, suddenly an Afghan army soldier opened fire on the U.S. soldiers who were present in the compound,” said Afghan Gen. Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, the police chief for eastern Nangarhar province
The U.S. troops returned fire, killing the Afghan soldier, whom Sherzad identified as Abdul Azim of Laghman province.
The motive for his attack was not known, and no group claimed responsibility for the assault.
In past attacks, Taliban insurgents have been known to wear Afghan police or military uniforms to stage attacks on the international troops. Others have opened fire apparently on their own accord, like an Afghan soldier who last year killed Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, the highest-ranked U.S. officer to be slain in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War.
The attack was the second fatality suffered by NATO since the beginning of the year. The last incident in which a U.S. soldier was killed in Afghanistan was Dec. 13, when a roadside bombing killed two U.S. troops in staff and mission Parwan province.
NATO confirmed one of its soldiers died in Wednesday’s attack, without providing the nationality of the slain soldier. A Washington official confirmed the soldier was American, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information before an official announcement was made.
The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, P. Michael McKinley, was not present at the time of the incident, Sherzad said. Neither Sherzad nor the U.S. Embassy identified the senior American diplomat at the meeting.
Information was sketchy and a witness said four U.S. troops had been wounded in the attack and were being treated at a clinic on the American base in Jalalabad. Later, Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, confirmed that “several” U.S. troops were wounded but could not clarify how many.
Noman Atefi, spokesman for the Afghan National Army’s eastern corps command, said one Afghan soldier had been killed and two others wounded in the shootout. It was not clear if the fatality he was referring to was the attacker.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, when asked about the shooting, said it “underscores that Afghanistan continues be a dangerous place.”
“We’re going to continue to work closely with President (Ashraf ) Ghani, other members of the Afghan government and our international partners to support the Afghan government of national unity as it pursues a future of greater peace, prosperity and, finally, an end to this conflict,” Earnest said.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Col. Steve Warren said an investigation into the shooting was underway.
There were at least four insider attacks in Afghanistan in 2014. The worst was Aug. 5, when the Afghan soldier shot and killed Greene and wounded 18.
Insider attacks first surged in 2012 to become a tactic in the Taliban insurgency. That year, more than 60 coalition troops — most of them Americans — were killed in more than 40 attacks that threatened to shatter trust between U.S. forces and the Afghan troops.
Such attacks are sometimes claimed by the Taliban as proof of their infiltration.
Others are attributed to personal disputes or resentment by Afghans who have soured on the yearslong international presence in their country after the fall of the Taliban’s ultraconservative Islamic regime.
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