Afghan Colleagues Kill 2 More US Troops

6 US service members have been killed since Koran-burning protests began
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2012 6:43 AM CST
Afghan Colleagues Kill 2 More US Troops
Burning tires are seen during a protest against Koran desecration in Kabul on February 24, 2012.   (Getty Images)

Increasingly frightening news out of Afghanistan: Two more US troops died at the hands of their Afghan colleagues today, bringing the death toll of such green-on-blue attacks in the last eight days to six. The service members were killed before dawn at a southern Kandahar base, marking the third such instance since the protests over Koran-burning began last week. A third US service member was wounded, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Reports on the gunmen are conflicting: Coalition reports cited two men, only one dressed as a soldier; the governor of the district where the shooting occurred says a literacy teacher assisting the Afghan National Army took a gun from an Afghan soldier and began firing. And the AP places the number of attackers at three. While those numbers are hazy, these aren't: The Journal reports that not a single US or NATO soldier was killed by bombs or in combat since the protests erupted; in 2012, one out of every five coalition-troop deaths can be attributed to an Afghan colleague. (More Koran stories.)

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