Afghan soldier injures 3 Australian, 2 Afghan comrades

TRINKOT (PAN): Three Australian and two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were wounded after their Afghan comrade opened fire on them at a military base in central Uruzgan province on Tuesday, officials said.

The Australian servicemembers were in a critical condition, while the Afghans were in satisfactory condition, Australian Defence Force Chief Lt. Gen. David Hurley told reporters in Canberra, the Australia’s capital, on Wednesday.

Australian soldiers were hunting for the shooter armed with an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher, Hurley added, saying the attacker fled in an Afghan army vehicle, and other Afghan soldiers at the base were disarmed as a precaution.

The incident took place on Tuesday night in the Charmistan area on the outskirts of Trinkot, the capital of Uruzgan, Abdul Hamid Wardak, the 205th Atal Military Corps commander, told Pajhwok Afghan News.  

It was the second such attack on Australian soldiers in less than two weeks. On October 29, another Afghan soldier killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in southern Kandahar province. Seven other Australian soldiers were also wounded in that incident, and the attacker was shot dead.

Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, focused on training the Afghan national army to take over security responsibility for Uruzgan. Thirty-two of its soldiers have been killed in the country so far. Australian plans to withdraw its troopers by 2014.

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