Four killed, one wounded after Afghan SF soldier turned gun on U.S. soldiers


nsnbc : Three U.S. soldiers and the Afghan assailant were killed and one U.S. soldier was wounded in eastern Afghanistan when the member of Afghanistan’s special forces turned his gun on the U.S. troops and opened fire.

Afghanistan_Afghan Forces_2017 (archives)The deadly incident happened on Saturday in the Achin district of Nangahar province. It was confirmed by provincial government spokesman Ataullah Khogyani who said the assailant was immediately gunned down after he opened fore on the U.S. troops. A spokesman for the U.S. military told the press that U.S. military officials are aware of the incident and “will release more information when appropriate”.

A Taliban spokesman allegedly took credit for “the insider attack”, allegedly claiming that the shooter had infiltrated the ranks of the Afghan forces to carry out such an attack. nsnbc could not independently verify the accuracy of this alleged claim or statement. The “claim” could, according to some analysts, as well be an attempt to either distract from the true motives of the assailant, an attempt to link the Taliban to the Islamic State to derail attempts to broker peace talks, or both of the above.

The incident was confirmed by a senior official at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. It is noteworthy that “the senior international diplomat” said Afghanistan’s authorities are looking into the possibility that the killings might be related to the earlier deaths of two Afghan policemen in what the U.S. called a ‘friendly fire incident’ in Helmand province.

U.S. and Afghan commando units are currently carrying out operations against the Afghan franchise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in the mountains of Achin where insurgents have established a number of positions and bases.

U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the death of the U.S. troops while he was at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, for the weekend. National Security Adviser Rick Waddell is reportedly keeping Trump briefed on developments in this incident and on Afghanistan in general. So-called insider attacks in Afghanistan are relatively frequent occurrences. In March, another Afghan soldier shot and wounded three U.S. soldiers in Helmand province before he was killed.

It is worth noting that this latest, alleged insider attack in Nangahar province, happened only hours after the U.S. military confirmed that overnight joint counter-Taliban operations in the southern province of Helmand have killed and wounded an unspecified number of members of Afghan security forces.

The confirmation followed local media reports that said airstrikes conducted late Friday in the insurgent-held Nad Ali district killed at least eight local forces and wounded many more. An investigation is underway to determine circumstances that led to the “unfortunate” incident,” said the American military’s public affairs office in Kabul. “During an ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] and U.S. partnered operation, fires resulted in the deaths and injuries to members of the Afghan Border Police,” it noted.

A spokesman for the Islamist insurgency claimed Afghan forces “dressed like Taliban” had taken up positions in the Loe Bagh area of the district to ambush Taliban insurgents when jet planes “bombed and killed tens of them.” Helmand is Afghanistan’s largest province and most of it is under the control or influence of the Taliban. The district where Friday night’s airstrikes took place is located on the edge of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.

A group of roughly 300 U.S. Marines arrived in the province in April to support Afghan forces there. The Taliban has extended its control and influence to swathes of Afghanistan and intensified battlefield attacks across the country since launching its so-called yearly spring offensive in late April, killing scores of Afghan security forces.

CH/L – nsnbc 12.06.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/12/four-killed-one-wounded-after-afghan-sf-soldier-turned-gun-on-u-s-soldiers/

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