Print2 NATO soldiers killed by Afghan army officer
That makes more than 70 coalition troops murdered by our "allies" since 2006.
The man was an officer in the Afghan National Army, said Ghulam Farooq Parwani, deputy commander of the 215th Afghan National Army Corps. He said the shooting took place at the British-run headquarters of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province.
NATO officials confirmed that there had been an attack killing two of its soldiers, but did not identify their nationality. "The gunman was shot and killed," a coalition spokesman, Maj. Jason Waggoner, told The Associated Press. He did not provide further details about the shooting or the gunman.
The killings fit a deadly and demoralizing pattern of so-called "green on blue" episodes in which members of the Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their American or coalition partners. More than 70 Americans have been killed in such attacks since 2006, the majority of them in the last two years.
Such killings complicate NATO efforts to train Afghan soldiers and eventually withdraw Western forces from the country. Since a Koran burning incident last month sparked widespread outrage and deadly protests, six American soldiers have been killed in apparently retaliatory killings by Afghan security forces.
Eventually, it is going to get so bad that we will have to train the army without their weapons. And talk about stress - not being able to tell friend from foe has added a layer of unnecessary concern that will affect the performance of our troops.
Can it get any worse? I would wager in the affirmative.
