Afghan Pilot Kills Foreign Soldiers in Airport Attack Claimed by Taliban
Afghan Air Force Pilot Kills 9 NATO Personnel in Kabul
Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch at the gate of the Afghan air force compound in Kabul.
Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch at the gate of the Afghan air force compound in Kabul. Photographer: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
An Afghan air force pilot opened fire after a dispute at Kabul’s airport, killing eight foreign troops and a contractor, NATO forces said.
Those killed were Americans, the Qatar-based television network Al-Jazeera reported, without saying where it got the information. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, said it was initially withholding the nationality of those killed as a matter of policy.
The officer “opened fire on foreign coalition personnel after an argument among them,” the Afghan defense ministry said in a statement. “The Afghan pilot was a 20-year veteran and was killed in the attack,” the ministry’s spokesman, General Zahir Azimy, said in a phone interview.
Today’s shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by Afghan servicemen or men wearing Afghan military uniforms. On April 16, a suicide bomber in Afghan army fatigues killed five NATO troops and five Afghans at a military base near the eastern city of Jalalabad.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in an e- mailed statement that the insurgent movement carried out the attack today, which he said killed nine foreign soldiers and five Afghan troops.
While there was no confirmation that the Taliban was responsible, the guerrillas have repeatedly gained access to military and security facilities in recent weeks.
On April 18, a gunman in an Afghan military uniform walked into the Defense Ministry headquarters and killed at least two soldiers before being shot dead by troops, the army said. The Taliban said that attack was an effort to target the visiting French defense minister, Gerard Longuet.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul, Afghanistan at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg in Hong Kong at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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