Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

KABUL—An Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish soldiers and an international interpreter before security forces shot him dead during an army training exercise in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan and international officials said.

The deaths are the latest in a string of incidents in which Afghan forces have fired on their international mentors during training exercises.

Afghan policemen stand near the skeletal remains of a burnt truck in Badghis province. Afghan police and Spanish troops clashed early Wednesday outside a base in western Afghanistan

Hundreds of Afghans poured into the streets after rumors spread of the death of an Afghan during the exercise, setting fire to government buildings in Badghis province's Qalay-I-Naw district and attacking a nearby military base operated by Spanish troops, local officials said.

The shooting occurred at about 9:20 a.m., officials said. The nationality of the interpreter wasn't known.

In a statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the cause of the shooting was still unclear, though it said reports indicate a member of the Afghan national police fired several rounds and NATO forces returned fire.

The Afghan policeman involved in the shooting may have been a Taliban insurgent, said Sharafuddin Mujadidi, a spokesman for the provincial government of Badghis. A spokesman for the Taliban couldn't be reached to comment.

Mr. Mujadidi said hundreds of Afghan civilians, chanting antigovernment and anti-NATO slogan, tried to enter the base after the gunbattle. "Afghan security forces quickly reacted and cordoned the base, dispersing the mob," he said.


Spanish soldiers patrol near a coal mine in Herat province in western Afghanistan in March.

A NATO official said there were still hundreds of Afghans demonstrating around the military base in Badghis province in the afternoon.

Taliban infiltration among the Afghan police and army is still a major concern despite efforts by Afghan and coalition forces to more thoroughly vet recruits, recently implementing biometric registration to weed out possible insurgents and criminals.

But last month, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two U.S. civilian army trainers and one Afghan during a training exercise, one of several similar incidents throughout the country.

The deaths Wednesday bring to 30 the number of Spanish fatalities in the nine-year U.S.-led war, out of 2,030 international troops, according to icasualties.org. So far this month, 52 members of coalition forces have died, with 30 of those fatalities American.

Violence has picked up in northern and western Afghanistan, which were considered to be quiet by coalition forces who have focused the majority of their troop surge in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered for 30,000 U.S. troops to be deployed in the country in December as U.S. forces draw down from Iraq.

—Habib Zahori and Habib Totakhil contributed to this article.

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