Afghan Trainee Kills 6 US Occupation Troops

30/11/2010 In the deadliest incident in at least two years, six US occupation troops were killed in a Training Afghan police by one of their students, officials said on Tuesday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the gunman, identified as a local resident who had been in training with occupation troops for only a few days, was also killed, and an investigation was underway.

A US defense official identified the six troops as Americans but declined to give further details.

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province where the incident took place, named the gunman as Azat Gul, a policeman being schooled at the training center in the Pachir Agam area of Khogyani district.

"After a few days of training, yesterday he opened fire and killed six American soldiers. The incident is under serious investigation," Abdulzai told AFP.

The deaths bring the number of coalition troop fatalities this year to 668, according to an AFP tally based on that tracked by the independent icasualties.org website.

It is the highest annual toll since the US-led invasion in late 2001. Last year 521 NATO soldiers died.

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