Afghan officials shocked at “reliable policeman” killing six US-NATO forces

KABUL - An Afghan citizen, who shot and killed six American soldiers on Monday, had been reportedly a reliable police officer since he joined in 2008.

The Taliban has claimed that he was a sleeper agent they had planted to kill NATO soldiers.

The officer named Ezzatullah, who took part in one of the worst attacks by an Afghan service member on NATO forces in nine years of war, was reportedly a poor boy who joined the police force to support his family.

The New York Times quoted General Mohammed Zaman Mamozai, a senior member of the Interior Ministry, as saying that he was being used by the Taliban against the NATO forces.

“We cannot rule out that he was used by the enemy, but he has been a border policeman for three years, and had been a good boy. I am really puzzled about why this happened,” he added.

The shootings occurred on Monday afternoon at a border police outpost in the Pachir-Wa-Agam District of Nangarhar Province, on the Pakistan border, the paper said.

Over the last 13 months when the Americans and their NATO allies were trying to train the Afghan security forces, at least six cases have been reported in which soldiers or police officers have turned their guns on their Western partners.

Lt. Col. John L. Dorrian, a NATO spokesman said that such tragic incidents have been happening despite their efforts to prevent them.

The number of NATO soldiers killed in November, including the six shot by Ezzatullah, has reached 57, nearly twice the number killed in the same period a year back, the paper added. (ANI)