KABUL — An Afghan police officer shot and killed at least three U.S. Special Forces soldiers Friday after inviting them for a meal at a check post in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said, in what appeared to be premeditated killings.
Details remained sketchy, and Afghan and coalition investigators were trying to piece together how the shooting unfolded as dusk approached. A dawn-to-dusk fast is being widely followed in Afghanistan as Muslims observe Ramadan.
The U.S. command in Afghanistan, which functions alongside the NATO-led coalition, issued a statement saying that three soldiers had been killed by a man in an Afghan uniform — standard phrasing used by military authorities when a member of the Afghan security forces kills a coalition service member.
Afghan officials offered more details. Muhammad Sharif, the governor of Sangin, said a police commander had invited the Special Forces soldiers to eat at his check post. He shot them when their guard was down and fled, Sharif said.
But the coalition said the soldiers might have arrived not for a meal or for any other gathering when the shooting took place. The coalition said it could not provide additional details until families of the dead had been notified and investigators had completed their inquiry.
A prominent tribal elder said he had been told by local authorities that his son, Assadullah, 25, a police officer, was suspected of carrying out the killings at a check post in the village of Khanan, which lies near a base used by U.S. Special Forces soldiers.
The elder, Shamsullah Saharai, said in a telephone interview that his son had worked with the Special Forces soldiers for four years and that he had not heard from him in six days.
In a separate episode Friday, a coalition service member was killed in southern Afghanistan in what the coalition described as an insurgent attack. The coalition, in a statement, did not specify the service member’s nationality or provide any other details.
