KABUL — Three NATO soldiers were killed Monday in two separate incidents involving gunmen allegedly affiliated with Afghan security forces, as unrest in the wake of a shooting rampage earlier this month spread through southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Two British soldiers died in the first attack, while the soldier killed in the second was reportedly American.
In one incident, an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was shot by “an alleged member of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) as the security force approached an ALP checkpoint” in eastern Afghanistan, according to ISAF.
“The circumstances behind the incident are currently under investigation by Afghan and coalition forces,” ISAF said in a statement.
The ISAF solider was American, NBC News reported, citing a senior US military official. ISAF has not yet identified the nationality of the soldier.
The Afghan Local Police are “loosely regulated units of the Afghan security forces trained mostly by members of the US Special Operations Forces,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Only hours earlier, a gunman wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against NATO troops near an ISAF base in southern Afghanistan, killing two British soldiers.
The two servicemen were shot and killed at the main entrance to Lashkar Gah Main Operating Base by the Afghan Army solider, identified by The Wall Street Journal as Gul Aziz. Lashkar Gah is the capital of Helmand province.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence confirmed the deaths of the two British servicemen. One was a Royal Marine and the other was a member of the Adjutant General’s Corps.
An Afghan soldier was also shot dead in the incident, as well as the gunman, and another Briton was wounded.
Aziz allegedly stormed the gate of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah as Afghan workers were coming out, Brig. Gen. Ghulam Farooq Parwani, deputy commander of the Afghan National Army’s Helmand-based 215th Corps, told The Wall Street Journal.
Aziz opened fire at the gate before being shot and killed by coalition forces at the base, Parwani said.
The attacks come in the wake of the shooting rampage by a US soldier in southern Kandahar province on March 11, which killed 17 people, including nine children.
According to Parwani, there was no immediate link between the attacker and the insurgency, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But Gen. John Allen, the top US and ISAF commander in the war-torn country, said Monday the attacks could be retaliation from the Taliban.
“The Taliban has had as an objective for sometime … to infiltrate the ISAF ranks,” Allen said. “Revenge is an important dimension in this culture.”
Altogether, 16 members of the US-led coalition have been killed in so-called “green-on-blue” attacks this year, according to The Journal.