US soldier killed in firefight between NATO and Afghan troops, sources say

Sources also report that two American servicemen were wounded during the gun battle that took place after a senior US diplomat left a meeting with a provincial Afghan governor.

|
Parwiz/REUTERS
Afghan civil order policemen stand guard at the gate of a provincial governor's office in Jalalabad April 8, 2015.

An American soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed when a firefight broke out between Afghan and NATO coalition forces at a compound where a senior US diplomat met a provincial governor in eastern Afghanistan, police and US sources said.

A handful of others from both sides were wounded in the shooting, which erupted shortly after the diplomat left the compound aboard a helicopter, according to US and Afghan sources.

The NATO soldiers involved in the incident were American, according to Afghan police, and had been leaving the venue to return to Camp Gamberi in east Afghanistan where they were stationed.

NATO issued a statement saying one of its soldiers had been killed, without divulging the nationality, though a US source told Reuters that the dead soldier was American and two Americans had been wounded in the clash.

Two Afghan soldiers were also injured in the shoot out and it was unclear who had fired first, police said, adding that an Afghan soldier was being questioned. They had no other details on the American casualties.

The US embassy in Kabul issued a statement on the incident without referring to casualties.

"We are aware that there was an exchange of gunfire involving Resolute Support service members... All Chief of Mission personnel of the visiting party are accounted for," the US embassy said.

The frequency of "insider attacks" in Afghanistan has fallen sharply this year as most foreign forces withdrew from the country in 2014.

A small contingent of around 12,000 NATO troops remains in Afghanistan to train Afghan forces after the combat mission officially ended last year.

Wednesday's incident was the first since January, when three US military contractors were killed by an Afghan soldier in the capital Kabul.

In the final years of the war, dozens of incidents seriously eroded trust between Afghan forces and their international allies, forcing the coalition to scale back interaction with government troops.

The Taliban have sometimes claimed insider attacks reflect their ability to infiltrate the enemy, but Afghan and coalition forces say incidents more often arise over misunderstandings or arguments between troops.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to US soldier killed in firefight between NATO and Afghan troops, sources say
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2015/0408/US-soldier-killed-in-firefight-between-NATO-and-Afghan-troops-sources-say
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe