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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Three Nato soldiers shot dead in Afghanistan 'insider attack' | Three Nato soldiers shot dead in Afghanistan 'insider attack' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Nato said on Saturday that three international troops had been killed in a shooting in Afghanistan. | |
| "Three International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] service members died when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform shot them in eastern Afghanistan today," the Nato-led coalition said in a statement. | |
| An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the three soldiers killed were special forces, though he declined to provide their nationality. US forces provide the bulk of ISAF troops in the east. The attack was the seventh reported insider attack this year; 12 ISAF personnel have been killed. | |
| General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, an Afghan defense ministry spokesman, confirmed the incident, saying the attack took place in Gardez, the capital of the eastern Paktia province. He said the ministry was investigating. In a statement, Nato said officials from the international force were working with Afghan officials in the investigation. | |
| The attacker was shot dead by Afghan soldiers immediately after the attack, Azimi said. | |
| It is the first such attack in months. Last year, a surge in such insider attacks seriously eroded trust between the international coalition and their Afghan allies, and raised troubling questions about the unpopular war's direction. | It is the first such attack in months. Last year, a surge in such insider attacks seriously eroded trust between the international coalition and their Afghan allies, and raised troubling questions about the unpopular war's direction. |
| The last reported insider attack was on 9 July, when an Afghan soldier at a military base in Kandahar shot dead one soldier and wounded three others. Last year saw a record number of such attacks. Figures have dropped considerably this year, partly due to increased security and partly due to a reduction in the interaction between Afghan soldiers and their foreign counterparts, western officials have said. | |
| Gardez is the capital of eastern Paktia, a volatile province that shares a porous border with Pakistan and is a hub for the Haqqani network, an insurgent group associated with the Taliban. | |
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