Two NATO troops were killed today at the Afghanistan Interior Ministry in Kabul. So far there are no concrete details as to what happened that caused the clash but reports are saying that the troops were killed by an angry Afghan police officer who targeted them. Both troops were high-ranking advisers for NATO and the US Read more below.
Two U.S. military advisers were killed Saturday at the Afghanistan Interior Ministry in Kabul, though accounts of what led to the clash were unclear.
Contradictory accounts emerged out of Kabul following the shooting. Initially, reports from the country indicated that the shooting was a result of an altercation between Westerners. But a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing one Western official in Kabul, said the two high-ranking advisers were killed by an Afghan policeman who was upset about the burning of Korans earlier this week at a U.S. military base.
The Associated Press then quoted a NATO official saying the shooter was not a Westerner.
A U.S. official in Washington confirmed that the two killed were American and that they were killed by “an assailant,” without giving further information about the attacker. The official spoke anonymously to discuss information that had not been publicly released.
NATO forces have advisers embedded in many Afghan ministries, both as trainers and to help manage the transition to Afghan control and foreign forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014. The Afghan Interior Ministry oversees all of the country’s police, so has numerous NATO advisers.
At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Tuesday, when it first emerged that Qurans and other religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul.
President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials apologized and said it was a terrible mistake, but the incident has sent thousands to the streets in this deeply religious country.
In Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province in northeast Afghanistan, more than 1,000 protesters demonstrated. At first they were peaceful, but as the protest continued they began throwing stones at government buildings and a U.N. office, said Sarwer Hussaini, a spokesman for the provincial police. He said the police were firing into the air to try to disperse the crowd.
U.N. officials could not be reached for immediate comment.
