KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier turned his gun on coalition service members in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three Australian service personnel, NATO said Thursday. The attack took to 45 the total number of coalition troops killed by their Afghan counterparts so far this year.
Fifteen members of the U.S.-led coalition have been killed in these so-called insider attacks this month alone, 12 of them American.
The attack happened at a fuel depot in Uruzgan Province in the south of the country late Wednesday evening, said Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a NATO spokesman in Kabul. The attacker, a member of the Afghan National Army, fled the base.
NATO did not know the reason for the shooting, although it said it was investigating. It blames about one in 10 of the recent wave of attacks on Taliban infiltrators posing as Afghan soldiers or police officers. A larger proportion, it believes, is tied in some way to broader Taliban influence such as coercion.
But most of the shootings are seen as stemming from cultural or personal disputes. Last week, President Hamid Karzai’s office said the attacks were mostly the work of spies from foreign countries.
The surge in the insider attacks, also called green-on-blue attacks, has increased tensions between NATO and the Afghan security forces at a crucial time in the training mission. NATO security forces are working closely with the Afghan Army and the police as they prepare to withdraw from the country in 2014, but the killings complicate the cooperation.
Fifteen members of the U.S.-led coalition have been killed in these so-called insider attacks this month alone, 12 of them American.
The attack happened at a fuel depot in Uruzgan Province in the south of the country late Wednesday evening, said Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a NATO spokesman in Kabul. The attacker, a member of the Afghan National Army, fled the base.
NATO did not know the reason for the shooting, although it said it was investigating. It blames about one in 10 of the recent wave of attacks on Taliban infiltrators posing as Afghan soldiers or police officers. A larger proportion, it believes, is tied in some way to broader Taliban influence such as coercion.
But most of the shootings are seen as stemming from cultural or personal disputes. Last week, President Hamid Karzai’s office said the attacks were mostly the work of spies from foreign countries.
The surge in the insider attacks, also called green-on-blue attacks, has increased tensions between NATO and the Afghan security forces at a crucial time in the training mission. NATO security forces are working closely with the Afghan Army and the police as they prepare to withdraw from the country in 2014, but the killings complicate the cooperation.