Two American soldiers killed in Afghan ‘insider attack’

A man wearing an Afghan military uniform shot dead two American soldiers in the country’s south Wednesday, the coalition said, the first insider attack on foreign troops since an embittered succession to the Taliban leadership. No group has so far claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack in Helmand, which coincided with the fall of a strategic district in the volatile opium-rich province to Taliban insurgents. Members of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission returned fire, wounding the attacker and another person in the same Afghan uniform.

Two US service members operating in support of Resolute Support mission were killed when two individuals wearing Afghan national defense and security force uniforms opened fire on their vehicle at an Afghan security force compound in Helmand province.

Pentagon spokesperson

So-called “green-on-blue” attacks, when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops, have been a major problem during NATO’s long years fighting alongside Afghan forces. Western officials say that most such attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings, rather than rebel plots. In another development in Helmand, Taliban insurgents overran the key district of Musa Qala after fierce fighting and repeated U.S. air strikes to repel them, adding to the insurgents’ recent advances in a heavily fought over region of opium farms and trade routes. Officials fear that the fall of the district, once a key NATO position, could help militants topple adjoining districts, tightening their grip on northern Helmand.

Many people have been killed or injured in the fighting. We barely made it out of the district alive,

Mullah Abdul Jalil, a resident of Musa Qala who fled with his family to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah

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