A United States citizen has been shot dead by an Afghan employee at an annex to the US embassy in Kabul used by the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said Monday. The attack at the Ariana Hotel compound late Sunday also wounded another US citizen, and the gunman was killed in the incident, an embassy spokesman said.
It was the latest eruption of violence to hit supposedly secure sites in Kabul after last week’s assassination of Afghan peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani and a 19-hour assault targeting the US embassy earlier this month. The US is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to tackle the Haqqani network, a group allied with the Taliban which is blamed for much of the violence in the Afghan capital. “There was a shooting incident at an annex of the US embassy in Kabul involving an Afghan employee who was killed,” said US embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall.
“One US citizen was killed, one was wounded.” Sundwall said the Afghan employee had carried out the shooting and that he had acted as “a lone gunman.” “The motivation for the attack is still under investigation,” he added. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Taliban. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said when contacted by AFP Monday that he was looking into what had happened. The body of the dead American is expected to be returned to the United States soon. Sundwall declined to comment on whether the building was a CIA facility.
