Five killed in Afghan firefight started by insider

KABUL // A police officer opened fire on US and Afghan forces at a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, sparking a firefight that killed two US troops and two other Afghan policemen. The attacker was also killed in the shootout.

Outside Kabul, meanwhile, US troops fired on a truck approaching their military convoy, killing two Afghan men inside it.

In the Wardak attack, an Afghan police officer stood up in the back of a police pickup truck, grabbed hold of a machine gun and started firing at the US special operations forces and Afghan policemen in the police compound in Jalrez district, according to police.

The assailant killed two Afghan policemen and wounded four, including the district police chief, before he was shot dead.

The US military said two American service members had been killed in the shooting.

In the convoy shooting, the Afghan driver failed to heed instructions to stop as his truck came close to the American convoy near Kabul.

"The convoy took appropriate measures to protect themselves and engaged the vehicle, killing two individuals and injuring one," a US forces spokesman said. He said an assessment was under way.