Afghan officer kills eight US troops at Kabul airport

A senior Afghan officer shot dead eight American troops and a civilian before being killed himself at Kabul airport today.

Relatives said Ahmad Gull, a veteran air force pilot, was not connected with terrorism but had been suffering from personal and money problems recently.

The killings of the air force trainers and advisers were the deadliest episode to date of an Afghan turning against his coalition partners.

The shooting occurred in an operations room of the Afghan Air Corps at Kabul airport.

"Suddenly, in the middle of the meeting, shooting started," said an Afghan Air Corps spokesman. "After the shooting started, we saw a number of Afghan army officers and soldiers running out of the building. Some were even throwing themselves out of the windows to get away."

Five Afghan soldiers were injured.

Gull's brother Dr Mohammad Hassan Sahibi said he had been battling financial troubles and insisted he had no ties to insurgents.

"He was 48 years old," Mr Sahibi said. "He served his country for years. He loved his people and his country. He had no link with Taliban or al-Qaida.

"He was under economic pressures and recently he sold his house. He was going through a very difficult period of time in his life."

It was the seventh time so far this year that members of the Afghan security forces, or insurgents impersonating them, have killed coalition soldiers or members of the Afghan security forces.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed said the gunman was impersonating an army officer.

However a Defence Ministry spokesman denied any terrorist link.

"An argument happened between him and the foreigners and we have to investigate that," he said.

Before today's shootings, the coalition had recorded 20 incidents since March 2009 where a member of the Afghan security forces or someone wearing a uniform used by them attacked coalition forces, killing a total of 36.

It is not known how many of the 282,000 members of the Afghan security forces have been killed in these type of incidents.

Nato said half of the 20 incidents involved the impersonation of an Afghan policeman or soldier. The cause of the other 10 incidents were attributed to combat stress or unknown reasons.