Sunday, May 06, 2007

Afghan soldier shoots US troops?

What? The Afghan army -- that's Karzai's army, they're allies.(?) But today an Afghan soldier reportedly shot and killed 2 US troops and wounded 2 others, before being shot himself. What the hell?

"An Afghan soldier shot and killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded two more outside a top-security prison near Kabul Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The gunman was shot dead by other Afghan troops at Pul-e-Charkhi prison, 20 miles east of Kabul, said Maj. Sheldon Smith, a spokesman for the Combined Security Transition Command, a body that trains and mentors Afghan security forces.

The Americans were providing external security for the prison when they were shot, Smith said. U.S. and Afghan authorities were trying to determine the motive for the attack, he said."

The motive? Either the Afghan army is being infiltrated by insurgents or the Afghans are really getting pissed off about the way the war is being conducted, particularly in terms of "collateral damage". Karzai just recently warned that the Afghans were angry about all the civilian casualties. (And rightly so.) This is not a good omen.