KABUL // The Pentagon yesterday confirmed that a US general was killed in an attack in Afghanistan – the highest-ranking American fatality since the September 11 attacks.
It also identified the assailant, who was wearing a uniform, as an Afghan soldier and said that he was killed after he opened fire.
About a dozen Americans were among 15 foreign troops who were injured in the attack yesterday at Camp Qargha, a base west of Kabul.
The details about the attack were not immediately clear.
The German military said the wounded included a German brigadier general, who was not in a life-threatening condition.
Afghanistan’s defence ministry said a “terrorist in an army uniform” opened fire on local and international troops. Three Afghan army officers were hurt.
Nato said it was assessing the situation.
Qargha is known as “Sandhurst in the sand” – referring to the famed British military academy – as British forces oversaw building the school for military officers and its training programme.
The British defence ministry said it was investigating the incident and declined to comment.
The Qargha shooting comes as so-called “insider attacks” – incidents in which Afghan troops turn on their Nato trainers – largely dropped last year. In 2013, there were 16 deaths in 10 attacks. In 2012, such attacks killed 53 coalition troops in 38 attacks.
The raids are sometimes claimed by the Taliban insurgency as proof of their infiltration. Others are attributed to personal disputes or resentment by Afghans who have soured on the continued international presence more than a dozen years after the fall of the Taliban regime.
Foreign aid workers and other civilians are increasingly becoming targets of violence.
Also on Tuesday, a Nato helicopter strike targeting missile-launching Taliban militants killed four civilians in Herat province, an Afghan official said.
* Associated Press