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KABUL—A Czech soldier with the U.S.-led international military forces in Afghanistan was killed in an apparent insider attack in the western province of Herat, the third such incident in the past two months.
The soldier was the fourth Czech service member killed as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission to Afghanistan since the Central European country’s parliament approved a plan in June to nearly double its forces in Afghanistan to 390.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack, which comes days after the bodyguard for the governor of the southern province of Kandahar opened fire on Afghan and U.S. officials following a meeting to discuss security preparations for Saturday’s parliamentary elections.
The Taliban, the country’s largest insurgency, said it was behind Thursday’s shooting spree in Kandahar, in which a top anti-Taliban security official and the provincial governor were killed.
“Initial reports indicate the attack was committed by a member of the Afghan security forces,” the coalition said on Monday, adding that two other coalition military personnel were wounded.
Afghan army officials in Herat, contacted by telephone, said they had no knowledge of the attack.
Afghan National Police honor guards carry the coffin of Gen. Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar police commander who was killed in an attack on Oct. 18, during a burial ceremony in Kandahar province.
Photo:
Ismail Sameem/Reuters
On Sept. 3, Army Sgt. Maj. Timothy Bolyard, 42 years old, died from wounds suffered after an Afghan police officer opened fire on a military base in eastern Loghar province. The assailant was taken into custody by Afghan security forces, the U.S. military said.
Some 14,000 American military personnel are deployed in Afghanistan, with most of them assigned to NATO’s train, advise and assist mission for Afghan soldiers and police. The training mission is the pillar of a multibillion-dollar U.S. effort here to build an Afghan military capable of defending the country and quelling terrorist threats.
Monday’s attack in Herat follows a report in the Washington Post on Sunday that a U.S. general was shot and wounded in last week’s Taliban-claimed attack in Kandahar.
Quoting four people with knowledge of that assault, the Post reported that Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was recovering from at least one gunshot wound. The commander of American-led international forces here, Army Gen. Scott Miller, was unhurt in the incident.
Immediately after the shooting, coalition spokesman David Butler said three Americans had been wounded and were in stable condition. After the Post published its report, Col. Butler confirmed on Twitter that Gen. Smiley had been wounded in the attack, the newspaper reported.
Gen. Smiley deployed to Afghanistan this summer, taking charge of the coalition’s train, advise and assist program for Afghan forces in the south of the country, according to the Post’s account.
About 557 Afghan security forces and 157 NATO personnel, including American service members, have been killed in 102 documented insider attacks since 2007, according to a study published last year by the Modern War Institute at West Point.
Measures put in place in 2012, when 44 insider attacks occurred, have reduced insider attacks by more than 80%, according to the study. The report said, however, that such attacks have become the “preferred war-fighting tactic of the Taliban.”
—Ehsanullah Amiri and Philip Heijmans
contributed to this article.
Write to Craig Nelson at [email protected]
