KABUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Four NATO soldiers were killed Sunday morning by members of the Afghan police in restive southern Afghanistan, the latest in the growing number of the so-called " green-on-blue" insider attacks when Afghan security forces turned their weapons against coalition partners, the coalition forces said in a statement.
"Four International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died today in southern Afghanistan following an insider attack suspected to involve members of the Afghan police," the NATO-led coalition or ISAF said in the statement.
The attack came one day after two British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan Local Police service member in southern Helmand province on Saturday.
The brief statement disclosed neither the nationalities of the victims nor the details about the incident under the ISAF policy. The incident is currently under investigation, it added.
Troops mainly from the U.S., Britain and Australia have been stationed in the southern region within the framework of ISAF to curb Taliban-linked insurgency there.
Sunday's attack brings to 33 the number of the green-on-blue attacks since the beginning of this year, killing 51 service members with the military alliance.
Meantime, an Afghan official who declined to be named told Xinhua that an Afghan police shot dead four U.S. soldiers in an outpost in Mizan district of southern Zabul province early Sunday morning.
While the coalition officials recently said that only 25 percent of insider attacks are related to Taliban-led insurgency but Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and NATO forces regularly claim responsibility for the attacks, saying their fighters infiltrated to Afghan army and police ranks to kill the foreign soldiers.
A group of Taliban, who masked themselves in U.S. military uniform, launched a coordinated attack against a main coalition base -- Camp Bastion in Helmand in the attack that left two U.S. Marines and 14 Taliban dead late on Friday.
It is not known at the moment whether the recent attacks were related to Taliban's announcement of hunting down British Prince Harry, who arrived at Camp Bastion in Helmand province earlier this month, starting his four-month military service as an Apache helicopter pilot.
"We have the same information as you have over the recent attacks .. the ISAF cannot draw that conclusion that the reasons behind the recent attacks were related to Prince Harry," an ISAF spokesman Major Adam Wojack told Xinhua on Sunday morning.
"The insurgents appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed. Dressed in U.S. Army uniforms and armed with automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and suicide vests, the insurgents attacked Coalition fixed and rotary wing aircraft parked on the flight line, aircraft hangars and other buildings ( at Camp Bastion)," the ISAF said in a statement Sunday morning.
"Six Coalition AV-8B Harrier jets were destroyed and two were significantly damaged. Three Coalition refueling stations were also destroyed. Six soft-skin aircraft hangars were damaged to some degree."
A total of eight military ISAF service members and one civilian contractor were wounded in the attack. None of their injuries are considered life-threatening, the ISAF statement further said.
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