Two US troops dead, six injured in Afghan attack

KABUL: Two American troops were killed and six wounded when an Afghan assailant wearing the national army’s uniform opened fire in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar last night, officials said on Sunday. Habib Rahman, a tribal chief in the area, told Arab News by phone that the assailant was killed during the clash, along with another Afghan soldier.
Rahman said the soldier opened fire on the US troops as they were leaving a government compound in the Sherzad district, after they had just completed plans for the launch of an operation in the region where the Taliban and Daesh have had a presence for years.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined US and Afghan force with a machine gun,” Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan said, adding that they were still “collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time.”
An official military source in Kabul, who requested anonymity, said that the attack took place on Saturday night following a verbal dispute with the troops.
Several provincial lawmakers believe that this was an insider attack. Such attacks reached their peak in 2012 and prompted US and Nato forces to cut visits to Afghan troops at their bases and reduce joint patrols, following a series of attacks either by men in Afghan uniforms or by Taliban infiltrators.
In a statement released on Sunday, Shah Mahmoud Miakhel, Nangarhar's governor, said that an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the incident.
“We still don’t know if he was an “influenced” person or if it was a mistake. Security officials have been sent to the area to investigate and soon we will share the details," he said.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Arab News that the group heard about the incident from the media.
The attack comes as US diplomats and Taliban delegates have resumed discussions in Qatar. Talks had been broken off by US President Donald Trump in September last year, following the killing of an American soldier in a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul.
A few months later, during his first visit to Afghanistan in November, Trump  pushed to restart talks. US officials are seeking a reduction of violence by the Taliban prior to the signing of the deal, which will lead to the complete withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country as demanded by the Taliban.
Hopes have been high in recent weeks that the US and Taliban will sign the deal.
“This attack does not seem at this stage to have been carried out by the Taliban as Afghan officials have openly indicated that the attacker was a soldier,” Taj Mohammad, a political analyst told Arab News, so he did not expect it to have an impact on the talks.