KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan working for the U.S. government killed a CIA contractor and wounded another American in an attack on the intelligence agency’s office in Kabul, officials said Monday, making it the latest in a series of high-profile attacks this month on U.S. targets.
The attack marked the most recent in a growing number this year by Afghans working with international forces in the country. Some assailants have turned out to be Taliban sleeper agents, while others have been motivated by personal grievances.
The assailant in Sunday evening’s shooting was killed, and it was not yet clear if he acted alone or if he belonged to an insurgent group.
A U.S. official in Washington said the Afghan attacker was providing security to the CIA office and that the American who died was working as a contractor for the CIA. Theofficial requested anonymity because he was speaking about intelligence matters.
The CIA declined to comment.
Gunfire was first heard sometime after 8 p.m. Kabul time near the former Ariana Hotel, a building that ex-U.S. intelligence officials said is the CIA station in Kabul. The spy agency occupied the heavily secured building - which is just blocks away from the Afghan presidential palace - in late 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.
The U.S. Embassy acknowledged that an Afghan employee of the complex carried out the attack.
“The motivation for the attack is still under investigation,” the embassy said in a statement.
Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall declined to comment on what the targeted annex was used for, citing security reasons. Sundwall said the Afghan employee was not authorized to carry a weapon, and it was not clearhow the man got a gun into the secured compound.
The embassy did not provide information on the American who was killed, and said the person wounded in the shooting was taken to a military hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. It said the embassy has “resumed business operations.”
The attack came less than two weeks after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings in Kabul, killing seven Afghans. No embassy or NATO staff members were hurt in the 20-hour assault.But it plunged U.S.-Pakistan relations to new lows as U.S. officials accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting insurgents in planning and executing the Sept. 13 attack.
Nearly 80 American soldiers were wounded and two Afghan civilians were killed in a truck bombing targeting an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Sept. 10.
American officials also blamed that attack on insurgents from the Haqqani network who are purportedly supported by Pakistani intelligence. Senior Pakistani officials reject the allegations.
Meanwhile, political tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan continued to mount Monday. The Afghan Foreign Ministry warned that relations with its neighbor will suffer if cross-border artillery attacks hitting eastern Afghanistan continue.
The Afghan government has said an unknown number of Afghan civilians have been killed by the shelling coming from Pakistani territory in recent days. The attacks have purportedly destroyed several houses and mosques and displaced hundreds of people.
The Foreign Ministry quoted Mohammad Sadeq, Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul, as saying the attacks were not intentional and that he regretted the killings and the destruction of property.
In the south on Monday,a NATO service member was killed in a bomb attack, pushing to 38 the number of international troops killed this month.
The U.S. general in charge of training in Afghanistan said the number of American military trainers there will increase by 800 by next March.
That’s a nearly 45 percent jump.
Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commander of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters Monday that even as the number of combat troops begins to drop, more trainers are needed.
He said the additional trainers will help the Afghans develop specialized skills in maintenance, logistics and medical systems - areas in which they now need help from the U.S.
There are 1,800 international trainers there now.
Information for this article was contributed from Washington by Adam Goldman and Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/27/2011