KABUL — Three American civilian contractors and an Afghan national were killed Thursday in a shooting incident at a military base attached to Kabul’s international airport, according to U.S. officials. A fourth American contractor was wounded in the attack.
It was unclear how the contractors were attacked. Suspicion fell on a possible “insider attack” perpetrated by a member of the Afghan security forces, who also have access to the military base at the airport. An unidentified Afghan air force official told the Reuters news agency that the shooter was an Afghan soldier.
When asked whether the incident was an “insider attack,” a U.S. military spokesman, Col. Brian Tribus, declined to comment. He said there would be no further comments on the incident until the investigation was complete.
The sprawling base where the shooting occurred is protected by tall concrete blast walls and filled with hangars, office trailers and maintenance buildings. It is a hub for the coalition’s air operations, as well as the main base of the Afghan air force.
As of last year, before the military drawdown, it was home to as many as 4,000 foreign military personnel and civilian contractors from more than a dozen nations, including many Americans. Top U.S. commanders spent much of their time there.
Insider attacks have long plagued the relationship between Afghan forces and their American and international allies, breaking down trust and reducing interaction between them.
No group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s killings, which broke a roughly three-week lull in violence in the capital. In the last two months of 2014, the Taliban intensified its attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country, targeting foreigners as well as influential Afghans.
