KABUL: Six NATO troops were shot dead by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform during a training exercise in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said, the worst “rogue” shooting in more than a year. Aminullah Amarkhil, the head of border police in eastern Afghanistan, said the shooting was in Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan. Most of the NATO troops based in Nangarhar are American.
The incident appeared to be the latest in a string of recent attacks by “rogue” police and soldiers, underlining the pressure on NATO-led troops as they try to train Afghan forces rapidly to allow the handover of security responsibility from next year.
Afghan authorities said last year they were tightening vetting procedures for the police and army after a similar incident when a renegade soldier killed five British troops on Nov. 3, 2009. The Nangarhar shooting was the worst casualty toll suffered by ISAF since eight troops were killed in five separate incidents on Oct. 14. “An individual in an Afghan Border Police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Forces during a training mission today, killing six servicemembers in eastern Afghanistan,” ISAF said in a statement.
The statement said the person who shot the troops was also killed. ISAF said the shooting was being investigated but it gave no other details, including the nationality of those killed.
Earlier this month, US and NATO leaders agreed to a timeline set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for foreign forces to end combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014. US President Barack Obama, who will review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, has said Washington will begin a gradual drawdown of its forces from July 2011.
The push to ramp up Afghan forces has created tensions on the ground. Three ISAF troops were shot by an Afghan soldier in the south earlier this month. Two Spanish police and an interpreter were killed in August when an Afghan policeman they were training turned on them before he was shot dead.
