US-led trooper killed in insider attack in Afghanistan

An Afghan soldier has killed a US-led trooper and wounded several others in eastern Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

Afghan officials say the attack was carried out on Thursday, when the soldier turned his gun on his NATO trainers in a military base in the province of Paktia.

The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) also confirmed the attack, saying the attacker, “wearing Afghan national security forces uniform”, lost his life in return fire from foreign troops on the ground.

On September 21, another Afghan soldier killed three US troopers during a similar attack in Paktia.

Scores of US-led foreign troopers have died in the so-called green-on-blue attacks, where Afghan soldiers turn guns on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The term green-on-blue comes from a color coding system used by the US army to refer to Afghan and foreign forces.

There was a hike in such assaults – also called insider attacks – in 2012. NATO restricted its joint operations with Afghan forces amid fears of more such attacks.

According to official figures released by the website icasualties.org, the overall number of US-led soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan stands at 131, of which 103 are American.