Afghan soldier opens fire on U.S. troops, killing 3

Taliban claiming responsibility for attack in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

An Afghan official said the deaths and injury stem from an attack by an Afghan soldier, who also died.

In a statement from Washington, the Pentagon didn’t provide details about what led to the deaths of the U.S. soldiers. It said the incident was under investigation.

A spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar province, Attahullah Khogyani, said in a statement that the attack took place in the Achin district.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says in a statement that a Taliban loyalist had infiltrated the Afghan army “just to attack foreign forces.”

In March, an Afghan soldier was killed after he opened fire on foreign forces at a base in Helmand province, wounding three U.S. soldiers.

White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters traveling with the President Donald Trump in New Jersey that Trump was “following the emerging situation in Afghanistan.”

Achin has been the site of heavy fighting in recent months as U.S. Special Operations forces — including elite Army Rangers and Green Berets — have been working alongside Afghan commandos to route the Islamic State from the area. Three U.S. soldiers had died there this year before Saturday’s shooting.

The Taliban are also active in the area, and there have been reports of clashes between the two insurgent groups in recent weeks. A Taliban spokesman sent a text message to journalists Saturday claiming the alleged assailant was an “infiltrator” of the Afghan army.

Also Saturday, two Afghan border policemen were killed by U.S. aircraft fire during a joint operation in the southern province of Helmand. The U.S. military in a statement apologized for the deaths and said the incident was under investigation.

The three previous U.S. soldiers deaths in Achin make up the entirety of U.S. combat fatalities in Afghanistan in 2017. In early April, Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, was killed by smallarms fire, followed by Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, at the end of the month.

Sgt. Rodgers and Sgt. Thomas were killed during a joint Afghan-U.S. nighttime raid on an IS headquarters building. The Pentagon is investigating if they were mortally wounded by friendly fire. The raid resulted in the death of the emir of the Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib, according to the Pentagon and Afghan officials. More than 30 other militants were also killed.

Achin was the also site where U.S. Special Operations troops in April dropped the GBU-43, a 22,000- pound bomb known as the MOAB, on a purported cave complex where insurgents were believed to be hiding. The blast flattened a swath of the countryside. While Afghan officials said dozens of militants were killed, the Pentagon has remained mum on what exactly the bomb accomplished.

The Afghan branch of IS, known as ISIS-K, is mainly composed of militants pulled from other groups and has turned into one of the main counterterrorism efforts for the United States in Afghanistan. Although military officials say the group is far smaller than it was at its height in 2015, an estimated 600 to 800 militants continue to pose an ample threat to U.S. and Afghan troops.