KABUL, Afghanistan – Eight American troops and a U.S. contractor died
Wednesday after an Afghan military pilot opened fire during a meeting at Kabul
airport — the deadliest episode to date of an Afghan turning against his
coalition partners, officials said.
The Afghan officer, who was a veteran military pilot, fired on the Americans
after an argument, the Afghan Defense Ministry said.
All nine killed were American, according to a senior U.S. defense official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been
made public.
The shooting occurred in an operations room of the Afghan Air Corps at Kabul
airport.
"Suddenly, in the middle of the meeting, shooting started," said Afghan Air
Corps spokesman Col. Bahader, who uses only one name. "After the shooting
started, we saw a number of Afghan army officers and soldiers running out of the
building. Some were even throwing themselves out of the windows to get
away."
Five Afghan soldiers were injured. At least one Afghan soldier was shot — in
the wrist — but most of the soldiers suffered broken bones and cuts, Bahader
said.
An Afghan pilot who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the gunman as
Ahmad Gul from Tarakhail district of Kabul province.
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sahibi, the brother of the shooter, who was killed in the
incident, had been battling financial troubles. Sahibi said his brother had no
ties to insurgents.
"He was 48 years old," Sahibi told Tolo, a private television station in
Kabul, "He served his country for years. He loved his people and his country. He
had no link with Taliban or al-Qaida.
"He was under economic pressures and recently he sold his house. He was going
through a very difficult period of time in his life."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the shooting and offered his
condolences to the relatives of the victims. He said those killed were trainers
and advisers for the Afghan air force. The president ordered his defense and
security officials to investigate the recent incidents to determine why they
occurred.
It was the seventh time so far this year that members of the Afghan security
forces, or insurgents impersonating them, have killed coalition soldiers or
members of the Afghan security forces.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, Taliban
spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the gunman was impersonating an army officer
and that others at the facility helped him gain access.
However, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman
was an Afghan military pilot of 20 years.
"An argument happened between him and the foreigners and we have to
investigate that," Azimi said.
Taliban insurgents have stepped up their attacks on government and military
installations across Afghanistan.
_On April 18, an insurgent managed to sneak past security at the heavily
fortified Afghan Defense Ministry compound in the capital and killed two Afghan
soldiers and an officer.
_Two days before that, an Afghan soldier walked into a meeting of NATO
trainers and Afghan troops at Forward Operating Base Gamberi in Laghman province
in eastern Afghanistan and detonated a vest of explosives hidden underneath his
uniform. The blast, the worst before Wednesday's shooting, killed six American
troops, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter.
_On April, 15, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up inside
the Kandahar police headquarters complex, killing the top law enforcement
officer in the restive southern province.
_In northwest Afghanistan, a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform shot
and killed two American military personnel on April 4 in Faryab. The gunman was
upset over the recent burning of the Quran at a Florida church, according to
NATO intelligence officials.
_In February, an Afghan soldier, who felt he had been personally offended by
his German partners, shot and killed three German soldiers and wounded six
others in the northern province of Baghlan.
_In January, an Afghan solider killed an Italian soldier and wounded another
in Badghis province. The two soldiers were cleaning their weapons at a combat
outpost when an Afghan soldier approached them with an M16 rifle and asked to
use their equipment to clean his gun. The Italians saw that the Afghan soldier's
rifle was loaded and asked him to unload it, at which point the Afghan soldier
shot the two Italians and escaped from the base.
Before the airport shooting, the coalition had recorded 20 incidents since
March 2009 where a member of the Afghan security forces or someone wearing a
uniform used by them attacked coalition forces, killing a total of 36. It is not
known how many of the 282,000 members of the Afghan security forces have been
killed in these type of incidents.
According to information compiled by NATO, half of the 20 incidents involved
the impersonation of an Afghan policeman or soldier. The cause of the other 10
incidents were attributed to combat stress or unknown reasons. NATO said that so
far, there is no solid evidence — despite Taliban assertions — that any
insurgent has joined the Afghan security forces for the sole purpose of
conducting attacks on coalition or Afghan forces.AP
