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U.S. soldiers injured after Afghan police officer fires at NATO convoy

By Ed Adamczyk
An Afghan police officer was shot and killed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, after he opened fire on a NATO convoy on Monday. Photo courtesy of NATO Resolute Support
An Afghan police officer was shot and killed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, after he opened fire on a NATO convoy on Monday. Photo courtesy of NATO Resolute Support

Sept. 23 (UPI) -- An Afghan police officer fired on a NATO coalition convoy in Kandahar province on Monday, and although the Taliban said three U.S. soldiers were killed, a U.S. spokesman said that only non-life-threatening injuries were sustained.

The NATO troops fired back, killing the Afghan Civil Order Police officer, in what has been described as a "green on blue" attack, in which a member of the Afghan forces attacks a member of a friendly force.

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"The attacker was killed by return fire from Resolute Support forces," Col. Sonny Leggett of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan said in a tweet Monday.

A U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman later confirmed that those injured were Americans involved in NATO's Resolute Support mission.

"We are reviewing the incident with our Afghan security partners," a NATO statement said. "Resolute Support continuously assesses force protection measures and we adapt and adjust based on the environment."

The attack came two months after another green-on-blue attack in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, in which two soldiers of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

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