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Deadly gunfight at Afghan base
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, A gunfight that broke out during rifle practice in northern Afghanistan Tuesday left four dead, including two Afghans and two Americans, officials said.
An unidentified Afghan defense official said the incident at Camp Shaheen, a training center for Afghan soldiers near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, started when an Afghan army sergeant argued with an American trainer and then fired his weapon at him and another American trainer, The New York Times reported. The official said a third American trainer then shot the sergeant and another Afghan soldier who happened to be nearby.
NATO officials issued a statement saying the Afghan sergeant, two of the American trainers and the second Afghan soldier died and a NATO soldier was wounded in the cross fire, the newspaper said.
Brig. Gen. Gary S. Patton, deputy commander for the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, said the gunfight was being investigated by a joint American-Afghan team.
Patton said the two Americans killed were civilian contract workers with military experience. He said the motives of the Afghan sergeant were unclear and called it "an isolated incident," the Times said.
Patton said he was not sure of the sequence of shots other than the initial ones fired by the Afghan sergeant. He confirmed the sergeant had been a trainer himself and had been involved in running the shooting range.
An Afghan soldier in Helmand province killed three British soldiers July 13 in what military officials have described as a premeditated attack.
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, A gunfight that broke out during rifle practice in northern Afghanistan Tuesday left four dead, including two Afghans and two Americans, officials said.
An unidentified Afghan defense official said the incident at Camp Shaheen, a training center for Afghan soldiers near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, started when an Afghan army sergeant argued with an American trainer and then fired his weapon at him and another American trainer, The New York Times reported. The official said a third American trainer then shot the sergeant and another Afghan soldier who happened to be nearby.
NATO officials issued a statement saying the Afghan sergeant, two of the American trainers and the second Afghan soldier died and a NATO soldier was wounded in the cross fire, the newspaper said.
Brig. Gen. Gary S. Patton, deputy commander for the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, said the gunfight was being investigated by a joint American-Afghan team.
Patton said the two Americans killed were civilian contract workers with military experience. He said the motives of the Afghan sergeant were unclear and called it "an isolated incident," the Times said.
Patton said he was not sure of the sequence of shots other than the initial ones fired by the Afghan sergeant. He confirmed the sergeant had been a trainer himself and had been involved in running the shooting range.
An Afghan soldier in Helmand province killed three British soldiers July 13 in what military officials have described as a premeditated attack.
