By PATRICK QUINN
Associated Press
KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan soldier-turned-insurgent who was feted
by the Taliban for killing an American soldier during an insider attack
in eastern Afghanistan last year has been killed in a raid, the
U.S.-led international coalition said on Monday.
NATO
identified the insurgent as Mahmood and said that he and an accomplice,
identified only as Rashid, died in last Wednesday's operation in
eastern Kunar province's Ghaziabad district. No other details were
provided.
Mahmood is thought responsible for
the May 11 killing of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Alejo Thompson, who died during
an insider attack on a base in Kunar. The attack also wounded two
American soldiers. Mahmood, in his early 20's and who went only by one
name later fled. Thompson, 30, a father of two, was from Yuma, Arizona.
He was based at Ford Carson, Colorado.
"Afghan
and coalition forces confirmed today the death of the two Taliban
insider attack facilitators, Mahmood and Rashid, during a security
operation in Ghaziabad district, Kunar province, Wednesday," the
coalition said in a statement. "Mahmood was responsible for the death of
one American service member during the May 11, 2012, insider attack in
Kunar province."
It added that "Rashid was
Mahmood's associate and a former Afghan National Army soldier who
facilitated and assisted with insider attack planning and execution."
After
he fled, a man named Mahmood was highlighted in a Taliban video that
showed him being welcomed as a hero while entering an insurgent camp. In
the video, he was shown in his Afghan army uniform, his U.S.-made M-16
assault rifle, and with garlands of flowers around his neck.
The Taliban claimed he had defected to their side.
Killings
by uniformed Afghans of foreign soldiers and civilians rose
dramatically last year. According to NATO, so-called insider attacks
killed 61 coalition personnel in 45 incidents last year, compared to 35
killed in 21 attacks a year earlier. This tally does not include the
Dec. 24 killing of an American civilian adviser by a female member of
the Afghan police because an investigation of the reportedly mentally
unstable woman is continuing.
In some cases,
militants have donned Afghan army or police uniforms to attack foreign
troops. And a number of attacks have also been carried out by members of
Afghan security forces against their own comrades.
Insider
attacks have dropped sharply after NATO forces took steps to mitigate
them, including having armed "guardian angels" looking over troops as
they sleep.
There has been only one insider
attack so far this year, the Jan. 7 killing of a British soldier in
southern Helmand province by a man in an Afghan army uniform.
Foreign
military casualties have sharply decreased as Afghan forces take the
lead for security and the coalition takes a back seat. So far this year,
eight foreign soldiers have died, including three Americans.
U.S.
troop deaths declined overall, from 404 in 2011 to 295 in 2012. More
than 2,000 U.S. troops and nearly 1,100 coalition troops have died in
Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion in late 2001.
By
comparison, more than 1,200 Afghan soldiers died in 2012 compared to
more than 550 in 2011, according to data compiled by the
Washington-based Brookings Institution.
There are about 100,000 foreign troops currently in Afghanistan, including about 66,000 from the United States.
President
Barack Obama last week announced that he could cut American troop
number by 34,000 within a year. Allied countries are expected to also
draw down.
---
Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez contributed from Kabul, Afghanistan.
© 2013 The Associated Press modified.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Alejo Thompson
