An Afghan policeman kills US troops at meal

Three American special forces soldiers were killed yesterday by an Afghan police officer who had invited them for a meal, Afghan officials said.

The US military in Afghanistan confirmed that three US soldiers had been killed by “an individual in an Afghan uniform” in Sangin district of southern Helmand province, but gave no further details.

The attack was the third so-called green-on-blue assault, in which Afghan forces turn their weapons against their Nato allies, in just four days.

Two Afghan officials said the soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan police officer who had invited them for a meal at his checkpost in the restive southern province.

“Asadullah, the police checkpost commander, invited four foreign special forces soldiers to a (Ramadan) breakfast at 2.30 a.m. in Sangin district,” a senior security officer in the province said, requesting anonymity.

“He later opened fire on the special forces soldiers, killing three and wounding another, and he managed to run away.”

Breakfast is eaten before sunrise during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from then until the evening meal at dusk.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack, saying seven US special forces soldiers had been killed.

“Asadullah (the police checkpost commander) joined the mujahideen ranks after the killing,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said by telephone. The Taliban regularly exaggerate attacks or claim credit for killing foreign soldiers even if they are not involved.

An increasing number of Afghan soldiers and police have turned their weapons against Nato colleagues helping them to fight a decade-long insurgency by the Taliban Islamists, who were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001. The attacks are raising questions about the ability of Afghan security forces to take over from Nato combat troops, the bulk of whom are scheduled to withdraw at the end of 2014.

The latest deaths take the green-on-blue toll this year to around 33, in some 23 such incidents, according to an AFP tally.

Some of the attacks are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between local and US-led allied forces.