'Afghan insider' kills three US soldiers

Man in Afghan army uniform turns his weapon on US troops working with him in the country's east, killing three of them.
A man in an Afghan uniform has shot dead three US soldiers in the eastern province of Paktika, officials have said.

An argument between the Afghan soldier and his trainers appeared to have led to Saturday's shooting on an Afghan National Army base in Paktika's Kher Qot district, according to a statement from the provincial governor's office.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but NATO officials have said that most insider attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than Taliban plots.

"Three ISAF members were killed when an individual wearing ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) uniform turned his weapon on them and opened fire," a local official spokesman said.

The foreigners returned fire and killed the Afghan soldier, who had no known connection to the insurgency, according to the local governor's statement.

The deaths of the International Security Assistance Force on Saturday in the district of Khair Kot came on the same day that one Italian soldier was killed and three others were wounded when a grenade was thrown into their armoured vehicle.

The Italian soldier was killed and three were wounded in Farah city on Saturday morning when an 11-year old child threw a grenade at a NATO convoy in the western province of Farah, a Taliban spokesman said.

'Guardian angel' troops

The Italian defence ministry and military said the attack happened as the convoy was returning to base.

The four deaths on Saturday bring to 16 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month, and come two days after seven Georgian soldiers were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack in the southern province of Helmand.

Scores of foreign soldiers have been killed in insider attacks, breeding fierce mistrust and threatening to derail the process of training Afghan forces to take over security duties ahead of NATO's withdrawal next year.

The threat has become so serious that foreign soldiers working with Afghan forces are regularly watched over by so-called "guardian angel" troops to provide protection from their supposed allies.

The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive at the end of April, marking a crucial period for Afghanistan as local security forces take the lead in offensives against the insurgents.

The militants said multiple suicide bombings and insider attacks by Afghan soldiers on NATO-led troops would be used to inflict maximum casualties.

Afghan soldiers and police are taking on responsibility for battling the militants from 100,000 NATO combat troops who will leave by the end of next year, 13 years after a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime



aljazeera