KABUL — An Afghan man employed by the U.S. government opened fire in the CIA compound in Kabul, killing an agency contractor and wounding another, officials said Monday.
The shooting late Sunday was the latest jarring incident in a capital increasingly besieged by war as the U.S. military starts to withdraw troops.
American officials said Monday that the motive of the assailant remains under investigation and offered no suggestion that the shooting was connected to a string of recent dramatic attacks in Kabul that have been blamed on insurgent groups.
The man who was killed was a CIA contractor who served in a support or maintenance role at the agency’s massive station inside the embassy compound, U.S. officials said.
He “was one of many who provided essential support for the maintenance of the U.S. Embassy complex in Kabul,” a U.S. official said. “He was a valued member of the team there and will be sorely missed.”
The second shooting victim, who was being treated for injuries that were not described as life- threatening, is also a CIA contractor, although his role at the CIA station was not disclosed. U.S. officials declined to disclose the identities of the victims.
A U.S. official said the gunman was “believed to have worked as part of the local guard force,” a position that gave him access to the compound as well as authority to carry a weapon.
The shootout in the CIA compound raised the possibility that even the most sensitive U.S. installation in Kabul isn’t immune from the type of deadly attacks that have turned this once relatively safe capital into a battleground.
“Slowly, steadily, the insurgent attacks are breaking down every sense of stability and progress in Afghanistan,” said a former U.S. official who left Kabul in recent weeks.
The recent flurry of bad news out of Kabul has bedeviled U.S. officials as they seek to make the case that the time is right to start withdrawing foreign forces and delegating more responsibility for security to the Afghans.
“A transition forced by political exigencies will never survive,” the former U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to express a view critical of the Obama administration’s Afghan policy. “Neither the Afghans or the U.S. is ready for a turnover, but no one wishes to acknowledge that.”
