Afghan airman shoots Nato troops, nine killed

Eight Nato troops and a contractor were killed on Wednesday when an Afghan ex-pilot opened fire after a row at a training centre, the worst attack of its kind in almost a decade of war. Although the killings appear to have stemmed from a disagreement rather than a rebel attack, they highlighted the prevailing insecurity in Afghanistan, 10 years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power.
The deaths are also likely to raise fresh questions over the massive Nato-led effort to expand and train Afghanistan's military and police so they can take control of security when foreign combat operations end in 2014. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that eight of its troops and one civilian working for the force died following the shooting, but did not reveal their nationalities in line with policy.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the shootings happened at around 11:00am (0630 GMT) when "an argument took place between an (Afghan) air force officer and foreign colleagues". Colonel Mohammed Bahadur Raeeskhail, the Afghan air force's media relations chief, gave further details.
"There is a conference hall and every morning, Afghan and international staff gather there for a briefing and then they proceed to their daily work," he told AFP. "Today at the briefing, this incident happened." He identified the 45-year-old gunman as a former pilot re-recruited to the military a few months ago, who had been working as an air force administrator.
"We don't know what exactly happened to trigger the shooting and how and by whose bullets these casualties were caused," added Raeeskhail. The gunman was shot dead by Afghan soldiers following the killings, which took place at Nato's Air Training Command Afghanistan centre on a site shared by Kabul's military and civilian airports.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident in a text message to AFP, but are known routinely to exaggerate their claims. An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the gunman was from a well-respected Kabul family, and that the shooting was the result of an disagreement, not terrorism. He is thought to have used a pistol in the shooting, the source added.
The incident was condemned by President Hamid Karzai, who said that five members of the Afghan air force were also wounded. He vowed to launch a probe. The deaths represent the highest number of foreign forces killed in a single incident since September, when nine ISAF troops died in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan.
It is also thought to be the deadliest incident for Nato troops targeted as they trained up Afghan forces. There is a history of Afghan troops attacking foreign soldiers who have been mentoring them ahead of limited foreign troop withdrawals due to start in July.
Last November, six US troops were shot dead during a training session in eastern Afghanistan, apparently by a member of the Afghan border police. Nato efforts to train and equip local forces so they can take responsibility for security across Afghanistan by 2014 have also been hit by a string of recent attacks by militants who have apparently infiltrated the armed forces or who attacked while wearing unauthorised uniforms.
The defence ministry in Kabul was targeted last week by a gunman in army uniform wearing a suicide vest, in an attack that left three people dead. Earlier this month, an attack at a military base in the east killed nine troops, while a police chief in southern Afghanistan was also assassinated. Citing "security reasons" the government cancelled a major annual military parade marking the 1992 overthrow of a Communist government, which was planned for Thursday. Karzai survived an assassination bid at the 2008 event.
The commander of the Nato mission to train Afghanistan's military, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, has called 2011 a "pivotal" year in which the total number of Afghan military and police should rise to over 300,000. The figure currently stands at over 180,000. He has said that the overall cost of the mission is expected to be around 40 billion dollars. There are around 130,000 international troops serving in Afghanistan, the bulk of them from the United States, although Afghan forces are in control of security in Kabul.