A female Afghan police officer shot dead a Nato civilian adviser inside Kabul police headquarters on Monday, officials said, in the first "insider" attack by a woman. It was the latest in a series of such attacks that have seriously undermined trust between Nato forces and their Afghan allies in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
A spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the adviser died of his wounds and the female police officer who shot him had been detained. In another insider attack on Monday, the head of a local police post in the northern province of Jawzjan shot dead five of his colleagues and ran away to join the Taliban, said provincial police chief Abdul Aziz Ghairat.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seidiqqi confirmed the Kabul incident and said an investigation was under way. A police officer at the scene who refused to give his name told AFP the shooting happened in the courtyard of the heavily-guarded headquarters in central Kabul. "I heard gunshots and than I saw the shooter - a woman wearing police uniform - running and firing into the air with her pistol," the officer said.
"I ran after her, jumped on her and put my gun to her head and told her not to move. She gave up and I arrested her and I took her weapon." The Afghan conflict has seen a surge in insider attacks this year, with more than 50 Isaf soldiers killed by their colleagues in the Afghan army or police, though most have happened on military bases and not in the capital.