KABUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The green-on-blue attacks carried out by man in Afghan uniform have claimed the lives of six soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) over the past two days in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan.
In the latest string of such deadly attacks, four soldiers of the military alliance lost their lives in the troubled southern region where Taliban militants are active, the NATO-led ISAF confirmed in a statement released here Sunday.
"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 statement said.
Nevertheless, the statement did not reveal the exact place of the incident and the nationalities of the victims.
Meantime, an Afghan official on the condition of anonymity told Xinhua that "the gruesome incident took place in Mizan district of Zabul province when an Afghan police opened fire killing four soldiers, all Americans".
On Saturday, two soldiers with the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force known as ISAF were killed as a man in Afghan police uniform opened fire, also in the southern region, the alliance confirmed in a statement.
"An individual believed to be an Afghan Local Police member turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan today, killing two," the ISAF said in the statement released Saturday evening.
The short statement, however, without giving more details, added that an ISAF service member returned fire, killing the attacker on the spot.
According to local media reports, the attack happened in the Taliban former stronghold of Helmand province and both the victims are Britons.
Although the Taliban outfit fighting Afghan and NATO-led forces often claim responsibility for the so-called green-on-blue attacks, saying their fighters infiltrated into Afghan army and police ranks to kill foreign soldiers, the NATO-led coalition officials had recently attributed only 25 percent of insiders' attacks to Taliban-linked militants.
Commenting on Saturday's insiders' attack, purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told media via telephone from unknown location that a soldier named Gul Agha opened fire and killed six foreign soldiers in Babaji area of Helmand province Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, spokesman of NATO-led ISAF troops, Brigadier General Gunter Katz, told a press briefing on Aug. 27 that such attacks would not affect NATO-led forces mission in Afghanistan.
So far this year, 33 insiders attacks have been registered which had claimed the lives of 51 soldiers with the NATO-led-led ISAF forces combating in Afghanistan.
Altogether 336 soldiers of the NATO-led coalition with 253 of them Americans have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
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