adminThe assault occurred in southern Uruzgan province in the evening of Wednesday, a US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
About 1 500 Australian troops are deploy-ed in the province as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing three,” ISAF said in a statement.
“The incident is currently under investigation.”
Nato has struggled to counter the so-called green-on-blue attacks in which uniformed Afghans turn their weapons against their international allies.
The scale of insider attacks by Afghan troops is unprecedented in modern warfare and threatens to derail the West’s carefully laid withdrawal plans, analysts say.
The assaults have surged this year, with more than 30 attacks claiming the lives of 45 coalition troops, mostly Americans, comprising about 14 percent of the overall death toll in the war for 2012, according to ISAF.
August has been the worst month for so-called green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan in more than 10 years of war, with nearly one in three international coalition deaths caused by Afghan allies.
The violence has troubled the international force, which has portrayed its partnership with Afghan troops as the key to a planned withdrawal of foreign combat troops over the next two years.
The commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, US General John Allen, said last week the causes of the surge in insider attacks were varied, and that Taliban infiltration only accounted for about a quarter of the incidents. — Al Jazeera
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