File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Taliban claim infiltration of armed forces after attacker shot dead
American troops opened fire after an “enemy insider” shot and killed an Afghan commander in central Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said, in yet another deadly Taliban-claimed infiltration.
According to the Afghan defense ministry, Colonel Mateen Mujtaba, who headed the 3rd army division in Ghazni province, was conducting a security assessment in Qarabagh district when an Afghan soldier started shooting.
Mateen was “killed by an army soldier who was in fact an enemy insider,” the defense ministry said in a statement. “The attacker was also killed when soldiers returned fire.”
The Taliban claimed the attack, saying U.S. soldiers had also been killed.
Resolute Support, the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, said no U.S. or coalition troops had been killed or wounded, but declined to comment further.
According to Amanullah Kamrani, a member of the Ghazni provincial council, Mateen was boarding a helicopter after a meeting with U.S. advisers when he was attacked. “The attacker was killed when Americans returned fire,” said Kamrani.
Insider attacks, sometimes referred to as “green on green,” are a constant threat in Afghanistan. In October, police chief General Abdul Raziq was among three people killed in a brazen insider attack on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar. The meeting was also attended by General Scott Miller, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. He escaped unhurt, but U.S. Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was among 13 people wounded in the shooting, which the Taliban said had targeted Miller and Raziq.