Rogue Afghan policeman shoots dead two NATO soldiers

May 13, 2011, 15:25 GMT

Kabul - A man in an Afghan police uniform shot dead two soldiers working with NATO in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, the alliance said Friday, the latest wave of attacks carried out by 'rogue' Afghan security forces.

The service members were part of a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) team that provided mentoring for Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) forces in their compound, the military said in a statement.

'The mentoring team was preparing to eat lunch with the ANCOP when a uniformed Afghan National Civil Order policeman began shooting at ISAF service members, resulting in the two ISAF service member's deaths,' it said.

The shooter was seriously injured during the exchange of fire on Thursday and was currently in a medical treatment centre, it added.

The shooting was reminiscent of a series of assaults conducted by rogue Afghan service members or Taliban infiltrators in recent months.

In the most recent incident, an Afghan pilot opened fire on ISAF forces at Kabul airbase on April 27, killing eight US soldiers and a foreign civilian contractor.

A militant dressed in a police uniform killed the police chief of the southern province of Kandahar on April 15. A day later a suicide bomber dressed as army soldier killed five ISAF personnel, four Afghan troops and one interpreter in the eastern region.

A Taliban sleeper agent breached security and tried to kill Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak inside the ministry earlier this month, but the attacker was killed by soldiers.

It was not immediately known if Friday's attacker was a member of the Taliban. The incident, however, is likely to create tension between foreign troops, who train Afghan forces.

The US and other NATO countries plan to increase the number of Afghan army and police forces to more than 300,000 by the end of this year.

The local forces are slated to take over the overall security responsibility of the country by the end of 2014, when the foreign troops are expected to end their combat mission in the country.

Afghan and NATO officials have said that new tightened vetting procedures have been introduced during the recruiting process, while all shops selling security forces' uniforms and other military gear have been closed.

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