WORLD_ U.S. general killed in attack at Afghan military academy

U.S. general killed in attack at Afghan military academy

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Dan Lamothe and Pamela Constable
August 5 at 5:00 PM

A man believed to be an Afghan soldier opened fire at an Afghan military academy in Kabul on Tuesday, killing a U.S. general and wounding up to 15 other personnel, including a German general and eight Americans, U.S. and coalition officials said.

The American general is the highest-ranking U.S. service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, declined to provide the officer’s name Tuesday afternoon, but other officials identified him as Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, deputy commanding general of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan in Kabul.

U.S. officials said five of the eight wounded Americans are in serious condition; a number of British soldiers were also wounded.

Greene previously served as the Army’s deputy for acquisition and systems management, a role in which he oversaw acquisition reform initiatives. He was commissioned as an engineer officer in 1980, after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The attack occurred about 12:23 p.m., according to an official at the German Embassy in Washington, who confirmed the wounding of a German brigadier general in the attack. The assailant was killed after the ambush, Kirby said. He would not say whether the shooter was killed by coalition troops or Afghans.

“It’s a terrible day. It’s a terrible tragedy,” said Kirby, adding that coalition officials have no reason to believe that the shooter was not a member of the Afghan National Security Forces.

The attack occurred at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University, the U.S.-led International Security Force (ISAF) coalition said. The facility, in the Qarga district of Kabul province and west of the city, was known as the Afghan National Defense University until earlier this year. It was renamed after the Afghan vice president and former military commander who died in March of an undisclosed illness.

A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, said he had no information about the killing of an American general in the attack. He said only that one NATO service member was killed and that 15 other military personnel were wounded, including three Afghan troops. Kirby said that not all of those wounded were U.S. personnel.

Azimi and other Afghan officials described the attacker as a “terrorist dressed in an Afghan army uniform,” who opened fire on a delegation of NATO military visitors at the main Afghan defense academy west of Kabul. Azimi said the attacker was immediately shot and killed by Afghan forces inside the compound.

Sources at the Afghan Defense Ministry said the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Army for the past two years and was from southeastern Afghanistan. They did not identify him. They said he used a light assault rifle to open fire on the foreign military delegation before he was fatally shot by Afghan forces.

President Obama received a briefing on the attack in Afghanistan from Gen. Joseph Dunford, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. He reiterated that the administration believes while Afghanistan remains a “dangerous” place its security needs must be met by the Afghan government.

“While we have made tremendous progress in disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaeda operations and leadership in Afghanistan and progress in winding down U.S. involvement in that conflict, this shooting is of course a painful reminder of the service and sacrifice that our men and women in uniform make every day for this country,” Earnest said.

President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that the victims of the attack were visiting the academy as part of an effort “to help us build up the Afghan security forces.” He blamed the assault on “enemies who don’t want to see Afghanistan have strong institutions.”

The senior United Nations official in Afghanistan issued a statement of condolence Tuesday night to the families and colleagues of “international and Afghan troops killed and wounded” in the attack. The statement did not identify any of the victims by rank or nationality or give a total number of casualties. It said only that “a number” of NATO forces were shot dead or wounded by an attacker in Afghan army uniform.

The statement from Jan Kubis, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, said international forces “continue to perform a critical role in Afghanistan’s security and are providing critical training for the country’s future and stability.” He called the attack a “tragedy.”

As of late Tuesday, no Afghan or foreign official in Kabul had confirmed that an American general was killed in the midday attack.

The academy is a centerpiece of the coalition’s plan to train the Afghan military. It has been described by U.S. military officials as “the West Point of Afghanistan,” a reference to the U.S. Army’s military academy in New York state.

The shooting Tuesday was one of the first major incidents of so-called insider attacks against Western forces in Afghanistan in recent months. Such attacks by Afghan trainees or soldiers against their Western instructors or colleagues grew in frequency over the past several years but tapered off as a result of stricter security and screening measures at military facilities.

However, the number and scope of Taliban insurgent attacks has been increasing in recent months, with dozens of deadly incidents involving unusually large numbers of insurgents. Officials have said the Taliban is testing the strength of Afghan security forces as American and NATO troops continue their withdrawal and prepare to place the nation’s defense largely in Afghan hands.

Insider attacks have been a core concern of coalition troops in Afghanistan for years. As of June 24, there had been 87 there since 2008, killing 142 coalition troops and wounding an additional 165, according to a tally kept by the Long War Journal.

The motives for the attacks have varied. In some cases, insurgents have infiltrated the Afghan military and police and waited for the opportunity to ambush coalition troops. In others, Afghan troops have attacked the coalition troops training them after feeling personally offended, military officials have said.

The worst year for insider attacks in Afghanistan was 2012, when 44 attacks killed 61 coalition troops, according to the Long War Journal. The rash of attacks that year prompted significant changes in the way Western and Afghan military service members interact. They included appointing “guardian angel” service members to stand guard while coalition troops and Afghans worked together. Insider attacks have been significantly down this year, with two recorded.

Constable reported from Kabul. Karen DeYoung and Katie Zezima contributed to this report.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.

Pamela Constable covers issues related to immigration policy, immigrant communities and international figures and issues that crop up in our local and regional midst.

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