The U.S. Embassy in Kabul confirms one American has been killed and another injured in a shooting incident inside an annex of the U.S. embassy in Kabul in which an Afghan employee of the embassy was killed.
According to the U.S. Embassy spokesman, the shooting incident occurred Sunday night, inside a building that is an annex of the U.S. Embassy. According to Afghan security forces and embassy officials who did not want to be named, the building is used as an office for the Central Intelligence Agency. An Afghan employee apparently opened fire on Americans, killing one and wounding another, before being killed himself. The injured American’s wounds were not life threatening.
The attack comes on the heels of the murder of the Afghan government’s chief peace negotiator last week, and an insurgent attack on the U.S. Embassy and nearby NATO headquarters nearly two weeks ago. That attack shut down parts of the capital for 20 hours.
NATO spokesman Carsten Jacobson echoed US officials recent assertions that insurgents here are changing their tactics.
"We have seen a number of high-level assassinations and we have seen an increase of complex attacks," said Jacobson. "We see that more from a military point of view as a sign of weakness than of strength, but we of course have understanding for the people of Afghanistan who see these attacks and fear that the situation is not good for their security."
One of those Afghans is Ahmed Wali Massoud, a former member of government and now opposition politician. He says the Taliban has clear targets - former resistance fighters.
"For the past six months at least, we can see that so many people got killed, especially those elites which belonged to the former resistance forces, they were the real enemy of them, so therefore they want to wipe them out," Massoud said.
President Hamid Karzai has formed a team to investigate the murder of his peace envoy last week. His opponents say if he does not come up with adequate answers, the people will take to the streets. A protest about the recent attacks is scheduled in Kabul on Tuedsday.
