Two members of the US armed forces were killed and six other US military personnel were injured Saturday in Afghanistan when an Afghan soldier opened fire, both US and Afghan officials confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.
Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the US command in Afghanistan seemed to at least partially confirm the reporting to the WSJ on Sunday, saying, "Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun."
The deaths occurred in the Nangarhar province, an area where both US and Afghan forces are currently battling ISIS and Taliban fighters, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
American soldiers were able to shoot and kill the shooter after the Afghan soldier opened fire on the US soldiers at an Army base in Nangarhar's Sherzad district, Ajmal Omar, deputy chief of the Nangarhar provincial council, said per the WSJ.
Another Nangarhar provincial council member told the WSJ that the shooting had occurred after a verbal disagreement, though US officials said the cause of the incident was still being investigated. The names of those killed and injured in the shooting have not been identified in accordance with US policy, the WSJ said.
There are still about 13,000 troops still stationed in Afghanistan amid the Trump Administration's claims it wants to end the war that has gone on for nearly two decades. Peace talks between the US and Taliban, which began in December 2019, have not yet been fruitful, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Also in December 2019, NBC News reported the Trump administration was planning to announce around 4,000 troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan, though an announcement hasn't been formally made as of February. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 19 that the country was ready if the US announced a withdrawal of troops.
"That's an internal US policy - as far as Afghanistan is concerned we have factored this in and we are ready to be able to see the departure of 4,000 troops," Ghani said, according to a previous Business Insider report.
More than 2,400 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, the WSJ said.