Kabul: Two soldiers in the Nato-led coalition fighting insurgents in Afghanistan were shot dead on Tuesday by a man in an Afghan police uniform, the alliance’s International Security Assistance Force said.
“An individual wearing Afghan National Police uniform turned his weapon against ISAF forces in southern Afghanistan, killing two soldiers,” a spokesman told AFP.
Taliban insurgents claimed that the shooter was one of their fighters who had infiltrated the police and that the soldiers killed were British.
“One of our mujahideen, Atiqulla, who had infiltrated the police forces carried out the attack in Greshk district [Helmand province] today,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP.
“He has killed two British soldiers.”
The Afghan conflict has seen a surge in insider attacks this year, with more than 50 ISAF troops killed by their colleagues in the Afghan army and police, seriously undermining trust between the allies.
Nato says about 25 per cent of the attacks are caused by Taliban infiltrators but the rest stem from personal animosities and cultural differences between Western troops and their Afghan allies.
In the most recent attack, two American soldiers were killed by a man in an Afghan police uniform in the central province of Uruzgan last Thursday.
The unprecedented number of so-called “green-on-blue” killings comes at a critical moment in the 11-year war, as Nato troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014 and hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
— AFP
