Afghan in uniform kills 3 at military site

An Afghan in military uniform shot to death three U.S. military contractors Thursday at Kabul International Airport’s military facility, the U.S.-led coalition said. The attacker was then shot and killed by security forces.

The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan released few details of the attack, but the the Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility.

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FOR THE RECORD

Jan. 30, 2:49 a.m.: An earlier version of this article stated that a gunman had killed three foreigners and a fellow Afghan in the attack. The Afghan who died was the gunman, who was shot and killed by security forces after the attack. The foreigners slain were U.S. military contractors.

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No motive for the attack was immediately released. Numerous people with the U.S.-led coalition have been the victims in recent years of so-called insider attacks by Afghans, though the assaults have diminished as the foreign forces reduced their troop presence.

Earlier Thursday, a passenger bus collided with a fuel tanker on a notoriously deadly highway in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 22 people and injuring 30, officials said. Jalali Khan Farahi, security chief of Zabul province, said women and children were among the injured, many of whom were in critical condition.

The bus was traveling from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar when it struck the fuel tanker in the provincial capital, Qalat. Local officials said they expected the death toll to increase.

The Kabul-Kandahar highway, which runs 300 miles, is considered one of the most dangerous roads in the country, both for insurgent attacks and erratic driving.

Elsewhere, violence killed more than two dozen Afghan civilians and security officers in eastern Afghanistan.

A homemade bomb in Laghman province killed at least three members of the Afghan Local Police and one civilian, officials said. Later, at a funeral for one of the slain officers, a suicide bombing killed 12 people, including four members of the police force.

Sarhadi Zwak, a provincial spokesman in Laghman, said at least 39 people were wounded in the funeral attack.

The United States helped establish the Afghan Local Police to provide security in Afghanistan’s more remote areas.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts.

In Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, a child walking to school was killed when he stepped on an explosive device, said provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

In Ghazni province, south of Kabul, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a clash that left at least 11 residents dead.

According to Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, the deputy governor, the clash broke out after Taliban fighters stormed a police checkpoint in Andar district. Residents of the district staged a retaliatory attack on the Taliban fighters, seven of whom were reportedly killed.

The clash is the latest instance of residents taking up arms against the Taliban in Andar. In the summer of 2012, hundreds joined against the insurgent group after the Taliban forced closure of schools in the area.

It was initially lauded as an organic resistance movement against the insurgents, but reports later indicated that one of the central instigators of the rebellion was tied to Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan’s second-largest armed opposition movement.

Latifi is a special correspondent.