KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A member of the Afghan army shot and killed two U.S. soldiers Monday when a dispute broke out during a joint patrol, military officials said.
The Afghan attacker was shot and killed by International Security Assistance Force soldiers in the confrontation in the Alingar district, said Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a NATO spokesman in Kabul.
Monday's incident brings the number of coalition soldiers shot by Afghan forces -- or "green on blue" attacks -- to 42 this year, with 12 of them this month alone, The Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, insurgents who had infiltrated the Afghan army killed 10 Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand Province Monday, The New York Times reported.
The number of these so-called "green-on-green" attacks has risen sharply in the past two years, the Times said.
"The enemy does not have the strength to fight our forces face to face," said Dawood Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor. "Therefore they try to carry out attacks by infiltrating in Afghan forces."
In the Taliban-controlled Kajaki district of Helmand Province, Taliban members cut the throats of 17 civilians, including two women, the Interior Ministry said.
Haji Naimatullah Khan, the governor of the Musa Qala district, which neighbors Kajacki, said the male civilians who died either had links to the government or were providing information to authorities. The women were killed because they begged for the lives of the men, he said.
