US Forces-Afghanistan confirmed that one American soldier and a civilian were killed and three more Americans were wounded in an attack today in the Afghan capital of Kabul. From the USFOR-A press release:
One U.S. service member and one U.S. civilian died as a result of wounds sustained in Kabul, Afghanistan today. One U.S. service member and two U.S. civilians also sustained wounds and are currently stable.
…
The two individuals were killed during an attack near a coalition base by an unknown assailant, who was later killed. They were conducting duties as part of the larger NATO mission to Train, Advise, and Assist the Afghan security services. An investigation is being conducted to determine the exact circumstances of the event.
U.S. Department of Defense Policy is to withhold the identity of those involved pending next-of-kin notification. We will release additional information as appropriate.
According to Reuters, “The shooting took place at about 11 a.m., while the international troops were visiting a base in Kabul.” The gunman is reported to have been wearing an Afghan Army uniform.
Neither the Taliban nor the Islamic State has claimed the attack at this time. In the past, the Taliban has infiltrated Afghan security forces to carry out such attacks or convinced soldiers or policemen to turn their weapons on Coalition personnel. The Islamic State claimed credit for killing a US soldier in an IED attack in its stronghold of Nangarhar two weeks ago.
If the shooting is confirmed to be a green-on-blue or insider attack, where Afghan police or soldiers target Coalition personnel, then it would be the first recorded incident of its kind since May of this year. [For in-depth information, see LWJ special report, Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.]
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4 Comments
Any thoughts on why we haven’t seen many of these attacks lately? Have we figured out how to prevent them (unitil now?), or have the Taliban thought them not effective ’till now.
This is an incredibly effective tactic because not only is there the casualties but it has a chilling effect on coalition personell and undermines trust between Afghan security forces and their western partner which will probably have a detrimental impact in terms of operational cohesivness when western forces accompany the ANF in battle
Wouldn’t the term “contractor” be more apropos in this case than [sic] “civlian”?
Want to bet our hero (RIP) was strapped? That’s not really a “civilian” IMHO.
29,000 contractors, mercs, adventurers and assorted gringo banditos in Country.
Some withdrawal, Barry Ho. Just enough to lose slowly.
There have been more recent Green-on-Blues. 15AUG2015 in Helmand was one of them.