US general killed in Afghanistan

Washington, Aug 6 :

Pentagon Tuesday confirmed that a US army general was killed in Afghanistan by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, media reports said.

The American general was killed Tuesday when the suspect opened fire at a military training base on the outskirts of Kabul, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The man, dressed in an Afghan army uniform, opened fired on a group of international soldiers. He was subsequently killed, Kirby said.

The attacker wounded 15 people, roughly half of them Americans, according to the New York Times.

An unspecified number of other service members of the American-led coalition and Afghan soldiers, including a senior Afghan commander, also were shot and their conditions were not immediately known, the newspaper quoted officials of the American-led coalition as saying.

On Feb 12, two NATO soldiers were shot dead and four others wounded by two Afghan army soldiers in eastern Kapisa province.

Several coalition service members died in such attacks over the past couple of years in the militancy-hit country. The Taliban insurgent group had in the past claimed responsibility for the majority of such incidents.

Nearly 50,000 NATO-led coalition troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are stationed in Afghanistan, and the US plans to trim its forces to less than 10,000 next year.

(IANS)