Eight NATO troops killed in Afghanistan attack
Eight american NATO troops and a contractor have been killed in Afghanistan after an Afghan military officer opened fire inside an office at Kabul airport.
The Afghan officer, who was a veteran military pilot, fired on the Nato Forces after an argument, which prompted a “gunfight”. The shooting occurred in an operations room of the Afghan Air Corps at Kabul airport.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the eight NATO service members and their civilian colleague were all americans.
Five Afghan soldiers were wounded, with at least one Afghan soldier shot – in the wrist – but most of the soldiers suffered broken bones and cuts, officials said.
It was the seventh time this year that members of the Afghan security forces, or insurgents impersonating them, have killed coalition soldiers or members of the Afghan security forces.
The attack comes less than a month after nine people died during protests in Kandahar and and an attack on the UN office in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which resulted in the deaths of seven UN workers.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack. In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the gunman, who was killed during the shooting, was impersonating an army officer and that others at the facility helped him gain access.
“One suicide attacker … managed to attack an Afghan military unit and has managed to kill many Afghan and international soldiers,” he said.
He also claimed that the man was a pilot in an Afghan regime in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
However, reports emerging out of Afghanistan suggest the gunman was Ahmad Gul, a 50-year-old pilot from Tarakhail district of Kabul province.
And Colonel Baha Dur, chief of public relations for the Afghan National Army at Kabul military airport, appeared to confirm the reports, saying: “A 50-year-old man opened fire at armed US military soldiers inside the airport after an argument between them turned serious”.
Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman was an Afghan military pilot of many years.
“An Afghan Air force officer, who was working for many years in the Afghan Air Force, opened fire on foreign forces after a short argument, and as a result of the shooting a number of foreign soldiers were killed and wounded, and then the shooter was killed by another Afghan National Army soldier. Also during the shooting, around five or six other Afghan National Army officers were wounded,” Mr Azimi said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings “by an Afghan military pilot.”
There have been 36 NATO deaths in the past two years attributed to attacks by people perceived to be Afghan soldiers or police. Officials fear that the increasing frequency of the attacks could undermine trust between NATO troops and the Afghans they are working hard to prepare so they can eventually take over security in the country.