WASHINGTON, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that a US major general was killed earlier in the day by a gunman dressed in an Afghan military uniform who opened fire at a military training facility in Kabul.
A total of 15 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, including a German general, were injured in the same attack, according to the ISAF. The motive for the shooting is unknown.
The German general, Michael Bartscher, was flown to the US base in Bagram. His life is said to be out of danger, media reports said.
US President Barack Obama has been briefed on the attack in Afghanistan, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, adding that the incident is "a painful reminder" of the sacrifices that Americans have made in Afghanistan and they are still facing risks.
The incident at Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul is the latest in the series of “insider attacks” against NATO forces by members of Afghanistan's security forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, and marks the highest-ranking US fatality in the international military campaign against Taliban in the war-torn Central Asian country.
The so-called «green-on-blue attacks» spiked in 2012 as NATO and Afghan forces started to work in more intimate contact with foreign troops handing over security to the Afghans and continuing to train them prior to the expected withdrawal of combat troops at the end of 2014. The spike in attacks prompted ISAF to enact stricter security measures.
ISAF is a NATO-led mission that has been active in Afghanistan since late 2001, aimed at training Afghan security forces.
