Nation/World

US troops wounded in apparent insider attack at Afghan base

An apparent insider attack in northern Afghanistan on Saturday left four U.S. troops wounded, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

If confirmed as an incident among joint forces, it would mark the second time in a week that members of allied Afghan troops opened fire on U.S. counterparts.

Robert Purtiman, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, said that the U.S. military was aware of "an incident" at Camp Shaheen in Mazar-e Sharif. He said there were no U.S. or NATO fatalities, but noted that U.S. soldiers were wounded.

In a separate statement, a U.S. official said four U.S. military personnel were wounded.

One Afghan soldier was killed, he said. The incident was under investigation.

[Alaska delegation mulls it over: Should Congress weigh in on the war in Afghanistan?]

A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry said "three foreign soldiers, possibly Americans" had been wounded during training at the base. The gunman – an Afghan – had been shot and killed, the spokesman said. Another Afghan soldier was also wounded.

ADVERTISEMENT

Camp Shaheen is home to the Afghan army's 209th Corps and was the site of a complex Taliban attack in April that killed more than 130 Afghan soldiers.

On June 10, three U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded in the Achin district of Nangahar province, when an Afghan commando opened fire on them. The soldiers were assisting operations against the Islamic State in the restive eastern province of Afghanistan.

Six U.S. troops have been killed from hostile fire in Afghanistan so far in 2017.

Saturday's incident comes just days after President Trump delegated authority to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to set U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, opening the door for a possible of influx of forces that could number in the thousands.

After more than 15 years of war the Taliban control broad swaths of the country and the struggling Afghan security forces continue to take an almost unsustainable amount of causalities as they battle to hold provincial capitals. Mattis told lawmakers during several hearings this week that he would have a strategy on the way forward in Afghanistan by mid-July.

In a statement Wednesday, Mattis said that "this administration will not repeat the mistakes of the past."

There are currently around 8,500 U.S. troops and 5,000 NATO forces in Afghanistan

Salahuddin reported from Kabul. Pamela Constable in Islamabad contributed to this report.

ADVERTISEMENT