Posted on 02/10/2020 12:07:06 AM PST by robowombat
WORLD NEWS FEBRUARY 8, 2020 / 10:35 PM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
Insider attack in Afghanistan kills two U.S. soldiers and Afghan serviceman
Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Idrees Ali
KABUL/WASHINGTON ) - Two U.S. soldiers and an Afghan soldier were killed when an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on them with a machine gun in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and two senior Afghan officials said on Sunday.
The shootout on Saturday wounded six U.S. service members and three Afghan soldiers.
The firefight broke out after a combined U.S. and Afghan force completed a “key-leader engagement” at the administrative headquarters of Nangarhar province’s Shirzad district, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” Colonel Sonny Leggett said in a statement.
“We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time,” he added.
The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for the attack and senior officials were investigating whether it was an insider attack - often known as “green-on-blue” attacks that have been a regular feature of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s defense ministry, in a statement on Sunday, said the attacker opened fire on Afghan National Army members and U.S. forces, killing one Afghan soldier and wounding three others alongside the American soldiers.
The Pentagon identified the Americans killed on Sunday as Sgt. 1st Class Javier Jaguar Gutierrez, 28, of San Antonio, Texas, and Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Rey Rodriguez, 28, of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The ministry set up an investigations team headed by the country’s chief of army staff to investigate the attack.
“Attacks such as this by our enemies fail to have negative effects on the friendship and spirit of cooperation and between the Afghan National Security Forces and the U.S. military,” the ministry said.
Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member in Nangarhar, said the attacker was killed in the clash.
He said the Islamist fighter had infiltrated the Afghan security forces involved in the joint operation, but did not say which group the militant belonged to.
There have been fewer insider attacks in recent years as the Americans have taken more of a supporting role, with Afghan forces leading the fight.
Last year the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller, survived a shooting by a Taliban infiltrator wearing an Afghan military uniform. A top Afghan general walking beside him was killed.
The latest shooting comes at a delicate time, with American and Taliban negotiators pushing for a peace deal.
Nangarhar, which shares a long and porous border with neighboring Pakistan, had long served as stronghold for the Islamic State militant group, though the Taliban also controls parts of the province.
About 14,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces and to carry out counter-terrorism operations.
This was a chief concern of mine. You can never trust.
We need to get out of the crap-hole. Now. No more American lives sacrificed for islam. No more.
If hadji pokes his head up and tries to harm us, we bomb them back into the pre-stone age.
Will we ever leave this place?
Glass Highway.
Are we there to keep the opium trade viable?
Not one American Servicemember should have died or been maimed there.
What are we defending?
Get out. If they give us trouble, decimate with bombs. No US lives in this and other hellholes.
I blame the Bushes for putting us there.
Can we leave yet?
Why are we still there?
Kill em all and let Allah sort em out. Then turn the place into the world’s largest open pit mine.
prayers for their souls, and their families. Trump needs to carpet bomb the taliban camps and then get us out.
Take some politics out of the decision and not poll but talk it through with these boots on the ground. They know the truth and reality and they are the Americans from whom to take council...and it’s been their blood investment so far....and tgeir families’. Not an easy decision but the black and white must be weighed overall, monthly.
We should have embraced our inner-William Tecumseh Sherman on September 12, 2001 and been done with this shithole by Christmas of that year.
This is insane. We should be out of there.
Rest in Peace Warriors, Your tour of duty is done. Prayers for these Families and Loved ones. 1st Class Javier Jaguar Gutierrez, 28, of San Antonio, Texas, and Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Rey Rodriguez, 28, of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Mrs. GailA I’m going to capture Your Pics.
The taliban put us there. I don’t have a problem with us initially being there. We righteously smoked the taliban, and that should have been the end of it. We have fathers who’s sons are there now, insane.
But yes, I do blame Bush for prolonging it. Zero for prolonging it. And dang it Trump! Get us out, now!
We should have nuked that sh*thole before sunset on 9/11/01.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.