Afghan soldier guns down foreign counterpart

KABUL, the alliance said on Wednesday.

The ISAF servicemember was killed on Tuesday when the attacker in the ANA uniform opened fire on troops in the south, the media office of NATO-led troops said in a brief statement.

In line with its policy, ISAF neither revealed the soldier’s nationality nor the exact location of the incident, but mostly US and British soldiers are deployed to southernn Afghanistan.

A senior official of the 215th Military Corps, Syed Maluk, said the incident took place in the Marja district of Helmand province. The attacker was under interrogation, he said.

During initial interrogations, the soldier said  that he had mistakenly opened fire on a patrol of ISAF troops. So far this year, 35 international soldiers have been killed in different parts of the country. In 2011, 566 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan.

On Jan. 20, 2012, an Afghan soldier opened fire on his French counterparts, killing four and wounding 17 others in the Tagab district of central Kapisa province.

Hours after the incident, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the suspension of training and joint operations in Afghanistan.

Later, the president agreed to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan in 2013, a year ahead of the 2014 deadline.

mrh/myn/mud