KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan gunmen attacked a construction company in Kabul province, wounding one security guard and kidnapping nine others, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
Gunmen opened fire on 18 Afghan guards in the mountainous Sarobi district, about 27 miles (45 kilometers) east of the capital, Kabul on Monday.
Nine guards were kidnapped and nine escaped, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. The gunmen also seized several rifles.
The attack came the same day an Afghan border policeman killed six American service members during a training mission, underscoring one of the risks in a U.S.-led program to educate enough recruits to turn over the lead for security to Afghan forces by 2014.
The attacker was killed in the shootout, which appeared to be the deadliest attack of its kind in at least two years.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for killing the six U.S. troops in Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border, saying the officer had enlisted as a sleeper agent in order to have an opportunity to kill foreigners.
Attacks on NATO troops by Afghan policemen or soldiers, although still rare, have increased as the coalition has accelerated the program. Other problems with the rapidly growing security forces include drug use, widespread illiteracy and high rates of attrition.
NATO is still investigating an incident earlier this month in which two U.S. Marines were killed in southern Helmand province, allegedly at the hands of an Afghan soldier.
After two deadly shootings in July, NATO officers said they were re-examining training practices to make sure that such attacks did not happen again.
On July 20, an Afghan army sergeant got into an argument at a shooting range in northern Afghanistan and shot dead two American civilian trainers before being killed. Another Afghan soldier was killed in the crossfire.
A week earlier, an Afghan soldier stationed in the south killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the middle of the night.
In November 2009, an Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand.
On Sept. 29, 2008, an Afghan police officer opened fire at a police station in eastern Paktia province, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding three before he was fatally shot. A NATO official expressed shock at the time that an Afghan officer would betray his NATO partners.
Col. John “Pete” Johnson, a U.S. forces commander in eastern Afghanistan, said afterwards that the Sept. 2008 attack was “way out of the norm” and “the first incident of its kind.”
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