US military: Afghan policeman kills US soldier

[October 16, 2008]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. military says an Afghan policeman has killed an American service member in eastern Afghanistan. It is the second such fatal shooting of a U.S. soldier by an Afghan policeman in a month.

The military says in a statement Thursday that the police officer opened fire and threw a hand grenade on a U.S. patrol in Bermel District of the eastern Paktika province. The troops returned fire, killing the policemen.

The U.S. troops were returning to a base from a foot patrol at the time of the attack.

The shootings raise the issue of possible infiltration of the police force by the militants.

The U.S. military says it is investigating the attack.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Insurgents kept up their assault on a key southern Afghan town, firing a rocket Thursday into a market that killed a civilian and wounded five others, a local official said.

The attack on Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand province, follows two other assaults this week on the security checkpoints that ring the city. More than 80 militants were killed and three police were wounded.

The attacks on the city, the capital of the world's largest opium producing region, appears to signal the Taliban's intention to disrupt a major government center.

Large-scale Taliban attacks on major Afghan towns have been rare since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Fighting typically takes place in small villages and rural areas.

Thursday's rocket landed on a street lined with shops, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,800 people -- mostly militants -- this year, according to an Associated Press count of figures from Western and Afghan officials.

On Wednesday, an explosion in the same province killed a British soldier, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The death brings to 121 the number of British personnel who have died in Afghanistan since the start of combat operations there in late 2001, the ministry said

[Associated Press]

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