Afghan soldier killed, US troopers wounded in shooting in Afghanistan

An Afghan army trooper has been killed and an unspecified number of US soldiers have been injured in an incident in northern Afghanistan, a US military official says.

The apparent shooting incident occurred on Saturday at Camp Shaheen, which is the headquarters of the Afghan Army's 209th Corps in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said a spokesman for the US military command in the capital Kabul.

The official rejected an earlier report by Abdul Qahar Araam, a spokesman for the Afghan corps, who had said that an Afghan trooper had "shot and killed" four US soldiers inside the base in an apparent insider attack.

The US official went on to say that one Afghan soldier lost his life and another was injured in the incident, without giving further details. The US military command in Kabul had earlier confirmed that it was "aware of an incident" at the military base.

The deadly attack came just a week after a similar shooting took place in Achin district in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where an Afghan army soldier shot dead three US troopers and wounded another.

In March, three US soldiers were killed in yet another such attack in Helmand, the volatile province where the Taliban militant group still holds a grip.

The attacks by Afghan military personnel on foreign forces have occurred some 15 years after Washington led a Western military campaign to oust the Taliban from power.

The deadly incidents come as anti-US sentiments still run deep among Afghan police and military forces as many blame Washington for the continued bloodshed in the country.

SS