'Afghan army soldier' kills two NATO troops: ISAF

KABUL - Agence France-Presse

Polish soldiers with the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) stand guard near the scene where a Polish armored military vehicle was hit by a road side bomb in Ghazni, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. AP Photo

A man wearing an Afghan army uniform on Thursday shot dead two members of NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force, military officials said.
 
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said targeted French troops in Kapisa province, which is east of the capital Kabul.
 
The insurgent group, which has been waging a 10-year insurgency against ISAF and Afghan forces, also said they were behind a roadside bomb attack in the southern province of Helmand that killed 10 local police.
 
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against two International Security Assistance Forces service members in eastern Afghanistan, today, killing both service members," an ISAF statement said.
 
The nationality of the victims was not identified in line with policy.
 
"This morning one Afghan soldier named Ebrahim killed three French soldiers. He was also martyred," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
 
The Taliban, who frequently exaggerate their claims, said the incident took place in Tagab district in Kapisa province, in the volatile east of the country.
 
There have been several incidents over the past year in which Afghan government security forces -- or those purporting to be -- have turned their weapons on foreign troops.
 
On Christmas eve an Afghan soldier was killed after opening fire on US troops in southwestern Farah province.
 
And in one of the biggest such attacks in April an Afghan airforce officer killed eight American troops and a US contractor at Kabul airport.
 
But roadside bombs remain the biggest killer in the conflict and insurgents have increasingly used the improvised devices, inflicting toll on both security forces and civilians.
 
One such Taliban bomb Thursday killed 10 Afghan police returning from a recruitment centre in Helmand, the local government said.
 
The victims were members of the US-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) set up last year and touted as key to a handover of security control, which will see all foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in theory by the end of 2014.
 
Ten local police were killed and one was injured after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province," provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
 
Three of the ALP officers were newly recruited, he added.
 
"Our mujahedeen fighters attacked a police vehicle and as a result 10 police were killed including a police commander," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.
 
Parts of Helmand remain highly unstable, although Nad-e Ali was one of the districts where President Hamid Karzai said security would be handed from NATO to Afghan control in a second wave of transition.

British forces have been operating in the district since 2006 and recently said the joint security effort had led to an 86 percent drop in violence this year compared to 2010.
 
The ALP arms local people to protect their communities in areas where the Afghan army and regular police have limited reach.
 
It does not have law enforcement powers and is due to more-than triple in size to 30,000. Critics have called it little more than a militia but NATO says the community force helps bolster security in rural areas.
 
There are around 130,000 international troops, mainly from the United States, in Afghanistan helping government forces combat the insurgency.