3 US Troops Killed by Afghan Police at Dinner

Special forces members had been invited to meal to talk about security
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2012 3:43 AM CDT
Updated Aug 10, 2012 4:02 AM CDT
3 US Troops Ambushed by Afghan Police Boss, Men
Transfer cases containing the remains of earlier victims of Afghan violence, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Clayton R. Beauchamp (left), and Army Spc. Ethan J. Martin, await an airlift to the US.   (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

Three US special forces troops were shot dead last night by an Afghan police commander and his men, who had invited the Americans to a dinner in Helmand province to discuss security, reports Reuters. "During dinner, the police commander and his colleagues shot them and then fled," said a senior Afghan official. "The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in the Sangin district. It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously."

NATO confirmed that the shootings were carried out by "Afghans in a uniform of some sort." It was the second incident in just days of so-called "green-on-blue" violence in which men in Afghan police or soldier uniforms attack coalition forces. A US NATO soldier was killed earlier this week by Afghan gunmen wearing army uniforms, reports the BBC. Three other US soldiers and a State Department Foreign Service officer were killed by a suicide bomber this week, reports CNN. (More Afghanistan stories.)

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