An Afghan soldier shot dead three US troops today after a quarrel broke out on the base.
The AFP reported:
An Afghan soldier shot dead three US troops on Saturday in the east of the country, the latest “insider attack” to shake efforts by the two armies to work together to defeat the Taliban insurgency.
The killings in Patika province came on the same day that one Italian soldier died and three others were wounded when a grenade was thrown into their armoured vehicle in the western province of Farah.
Scores of foreign soldiers have been killed in insider attacks in Afghanistan, breeding fierce mistrust and threatening to derail the training of local 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 Paktika provincial government issued a statement saying “a verbal dispute erupted” between the Afghan soldier and a US soldier in the district of Khair Kot.It said the Afghan man killed three US troops serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and wounded three others before being shot himself.
“Initial information indicates that the incident followed an argument, and the soldier was not connected with the armed opposition,” the statement added.
