KABUL : An Afghan guard killed two men serving with the NATO-led coalition in a secure area of Afghanistan on Saturday, Afghan and NATO officials said, in the latest attack on foreign troops by rogue members of national security forces.
The assailant, identified as Amanullah, was a bodyguard for the deputy head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, an agency official said, adding that the guard was off-duty when he opened fire and killed the two men.
A third member of the NATO force was injured before the attacker was shot dead in return fire, a provincial police official said. The official described the casualties as Americans, but a statement issued by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force identified the dead only as a coalition soldier and a civilian working for the coalition.
An ISAF spokesman in Kabul, Maj. Tim James, declined to identify the nationalities of the dead and injured.
The shooting apparently followed a verbal dispute that broke out when Amanullah stopped the vehicle in which the NATO forces were traveling in Panjshir province, north of Kabul, provincial police said.
The Taliban, which leads the insurgency against foreign and Afghan national forces, said a member of the group was behind the attack, a rare occurrence in Panjshir. The province was a stronghold of anti-Taliban forces before the ouster of the militants by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001.
Afghan officials ruled out the involvement of the Taliban. James said the motive for the attack and the identity of the assailant were being investigated.
Recent months have witnessed a string of attacks against NATO and U.S. forces in various parts of Afghanistan by either rogue Afghan forces or Taliban infiltrators in the forces’ ranks. The deadliest occurred in April, when an Afghan pilot shot dead nine American mentors at Kabul airport.
