Afghanistan: Herat policeman 'kills foreign contractors'

Afghan police file image The attacker was killed by Isaf personnel

An Afghan policeman has shot dead three foreign staff at a training centre in western Herat province, Afghan officials say.

The gunman also injured their Afghan translator, the security and intelligence officials told the BBC.

The attacker, who is said to have worked for the regional police command, was subsequently killed by members of the US-led international force Isaf.

An Isaf spokesman told the BBC the contractors were civilian employees.

Maj Adam Wojack said the attacker had been wearing an Afghan army uniform.

He did not give the nationality of the three contractors killed in Sunday's incident. One report said they were American but this has not been confirmed.

Officials named the policeman as Eidi Mohammad, from the neighbouring province of Ghoar.

It was unclear what his motives might have been.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says hundreds of Afghan recruits from several Western provinces join the national police at the Herat base.

Some of the recruits come from remote areas where Taliban insurgents are in control, he says.

More on This Story

More Asia stories

RSS

Features & Analysis

Elsewhere on the BBC

  • Audio cassette Be kind, rewind

    The cassette is making a comeback, but can business capitalise on a trend without falling victim to a fad?

Programmes

  • A graphic of a person and the Earth respresenting the world wide webClick Watch

    David Reid visits Cern to find out more about the plans to restore the world's first web page

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.